The Trends of Japanese Electric Utility Industry under Kyoto Protocol after 311 Earthquake

The devastating March 11, 2011 Earthquake (311 Earthquake) in northeast coast of Japan does not only result in a massive destruction to infrastructure, it also created power supply outage throughout the nation. Huge losses in nuclear power capacity and increasing awareness to nuclear safety have begun to cause changes in power system structure and energy policy in Japan. In this paper, we began by analysing the change of electricity generation before and after the 311 Earthquake. From the analysis, the electricity generation, Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission generation and CO2 intensity of Japanese electric utility industry in fiscal 2011 were calculated. These calculations have included the impact of the 311 earthquake. The result of the calculation has shown that by including the impact of the 311 Earthquake, 803.4 billion kWh of electricity with 371.15 million metric tons of GHG emission will be generated. The CO2 intensity of Japanese electricity generation will also increase from 0.417 kg-C02/kWh to 0.462 kg-C02/kWh in fiscal 2011. In another word, if the Japanese electric utility industry would like to achieve the emission reduction target under Kyoto Protocol even after taking the 311 Earthquake into consideration, it would need to further reduce about 114.06 million metric tons of GHG emission.