Two of Japan's energy giants are planning to pool their resources to build a large thermal power plant to meet the increased demand for power in the context of most of the country's nuclear power plant remaining offline since the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Chubu Electric Power Company are in the final stages of negotiating the deal, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
The 600,000-kilowatt coal-fired plant is proposed to be built in TEPCO's thermal power compound north of Tokyo. Under the deal, TEPCO would sell about 70 percent of the electricity to businesses in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the rest by Chubu Electric in their service area.
The NHK broadcaster reports that it is a rare move for Japanese power companies, which are strictly regulated.
TEPCO is currently facing claims running into billions of dollars as compensation to victims of the accident at its Fukushima nuclear power plant triggered by the March, 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan's northeast.
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