Japan’s Tokyo Gas restarts earthquake-hit biomass unit

Japanese utility Tokyo Gas resumed commercial operations at its 51.5MW Fushiki Manyofuto biomass power plant from mid-May following earthquake-related disruptions in January.

The power plant is located in Toyama prefecture of the Hokuriku region, which was hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake on 1 January. The unit was already shut because of a technical issue prior to the earthquake, with it then forced to extend its closure with damage from earthquake-related liquefaction.

The company has made necessary repairs to restart the plant, such as fixing distorted piping. It began trial runs on 14 May, then resumed commercial operation on 16 May. Key generation infrastructure, including its boiler and turbine, were not seriously damaged by the earthquake.

Fushiki Manyofuto came on line in July 2022, burning around 200,000 t/yr of wood pellets imported from Canada and southeast Asia. It currently is not consuming palm kernel shells.

Tokyo Gas also operates the 75MW Ichihara Yawatafuto biomass power plant in Chiba prefecture, which plans to burn 270,000 t/yr of wood pellets. Its debut was scheduled for January this year but this was postponed and no new start-up date has been set.

By Takeshi Maeda