TOKYO -- With Kyushu Electric Power planning to build a coal-fired power plant near Tokyo, Japan's top four utilities are now battling over the country's biggest market ahead of the full deregulation of retail electricity sales in 2016.
Kyushu Electric will partner with Idemitsu Kosan and Tokyo Gas to construct a high-efficiency coal-burning plant next to Idemitsu's oil refinery in Chiba Prefecture, outside Tokyo. The plant will run on supplies delivered to Idemitsu's coal import center.
