Earthquake damages main coal plant in Hokkaido, Japan

The plant supplies half of the island's power.

Reuters reports that a powerful earthquake struck a coal-fired plant supplying half of Japan's northern Hokkaido island, the country's industry ministry said.

Hokkaido Electric Power, the plant’s operator, said earlier it shut down all its remaining fossil-fuelled plants in the immediate aftermath of the quake, leaving all of its 2.95 million customers without power.

The 350MW capacity No.1 unit and the 600 MW No.2 unit at the Tomato-Atsuma plant operated by Hokkaido Electric Power have been damaged, but the nature of the damage was not specified.

Hokkaido Electric is preparing to restart the plant’s 700 MW No.4 unit, the ministry said, without saying when power supplies would resume.

Read the full report here.

Photo by achappe from Hakodate, Hokkaido, JAPAN, CC 表示 2.0