POWER October 2014 - 24

TOP PLANTS
Hitachinaka Thermal Power
Station Unit 2, Tokai, Ibaraki
Prefecture, Japan
Owner/operator: Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Courtesy: TEPCO
Think your project was tough? Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) finished one of the
world's most efficient coal-fired power plant on time despite a 9.0-magnitude earthquake
that devastated both the site and much of the country.
Thomas W. Overton, JD
B
ad weather, unforeseen setbacks, and
even natural disasters are far from unheard
of during power plant construction.
But there may be no plant that experienced
the sort of construction hardships that
Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO's) Unit
2 at Hitachinaka Thermal Power Station in
Ibaraki Prefecture did as it was taking shape
in the early 2010s.
Though TEPCO can trace its roots to The
Tokyo Electric Light Co., founded in 1883
during the Meiji Restoration period that saw
Japan emerge as a modern industrialized
nation, its name outside Japan has become
inextricably linked with the disaster at the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after the
Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011.
Though that accident and the resulting
consequences for the Japanese nuclear industry
certainly earned the headlines they have
appeared in since, Fukushima Daiichi was far
24
from the only power plant damaged by the
earthquake. This is the story of one of them.
Leading the Way
Unlike many other industrialized nations,
Japan in the 2000s was not facing a future
of continually rising electricity demand. Indeed,
national electricity consumption has
remained largely flat since 2000. Japan, however,
must import about 90% of its primary
energy needs, which makes energy efficiency
a national priority-some might call it a
national obsession-to a degree seen in no
other country.
The need to rebuild after World War II
has given Japan a somewhat more modern
and advanced coal-fired fleet than most industrialized
nations, and despite having no
indigenous coal resources, the nation has
continued to drive advances in coal generation
technology. The net thermal efficiency
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of Japan's coal-fired power plants-currently
around 42% lower heating value (LHV)-
has been the highest in the world for decades,
well above that in comparable nations such
as Germany and the U.S. (average U.S. fleet
efficiency has hovered around 36% since the
1980s).
Japan was one of the first countries to embrace
supercritical, and later ultrasupercritical
(USC, defined as steam pressures above
3,495 psi and main and reheat steam temperatures
above 593C/1,100F) coal generation,
and it has led the development of advanced
USC (steam temperatures above 700C) technology,
with commercialization expected by
2020, according to the International Energy
Agency. The country is also a leader in integrated
gasification combined cycle (IGCC)
generation, with a 250-MW IGCC plant operating
in Nakoso and two 500-MW plants
under development by TEPCO in Fukushima
POWER | October 2014
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2014

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