At the end of September, Kansai Electric (KEPCO) announced plans to shut units at the oil-fired Gobo Power Station in Wakayama Prefecture, accelerating the utility’s pivot away from carbon-intensive generation.

Gobo has long functioned as a strategic reserve facility, but declining use rates and rising maintenance challenges have made its role marginal. While Units 1-2 will be decommissioned, the fate of Unit 3 remains undecided.

KEPCO is not alone in this shift. A growing number of Japanese utilities are retiring their thermal fleets with over 25 GW of oil-, gas- and coal-fired slated for decommissioning this decade. But only KEPCO can count on a sizable operational nuclear power plant fleet. Indeed, its energy mix leans more and more on nuclear power, in the wake of NPP restarts.

Japan NRG takes a closer look at KEPCO’s shift – what’s behind it, and most importantly what comes next.