"Japan Natural Energy Company Limited" Established
- Aiming to encourage companies' efforts on environmental protection,
TEPCO is to introduce the first "Green Power Certification System" in Japan. -

12 October 2000
Tokyo Electric Power Company

              TEPCO has announced the establishment of a power generation company under a joint venture between 11 companies. The companies participating are; Sumitomo Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc., Japan Wind Development Co., Ltd., Kyusyu Electric Power Co., Inc., Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Inc., Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc., and The Sakura Bank Limited.

              The new company, called "Japan Natural Energy Company Limited" (President: Takeshi Shoda), is the first in Japan to offer power generation services utilising renewable energy on behalf of corporate customers who are environmentally conscious.
Their operation will start on 1 November 2000.

              TEPCO has long been striving to promote and expand the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy. A wide range of initiatives have been undertaken including installation of power generation facilities utilising natural resources in its own plants,
purchase of surplus electricity from families with solar photovoltaic systems at a price equal to the selling price, support to environmental NGO projects for dissemination of natural energy and the establishment of a "Green Fund" for domestic consumers on 1 October 2000. In addition to these achievements, following proposals by Sony Corporation, who has shown a strong interest in the utilisation of natural resources as a new means of protecting the environment, a joint study on "Green Power Certification System", a new scheme for businesses, has been carried out.

              JNEC will be entrusted with a power generation service from corporate customers who wish to take advantage of renewable energy such as wind power as one of the voluntary environmental protection measures incorporating energy savings and CO2 emission reductions. The company will then identify an appropriate power generation company who is able to efficiently generate power using natural resources as a subcontractor to take care of construction and operation of the power facilities. The electric power generated at such facilities will be sold to local electric power companies. The revenue from power sales as well as contract fees will be assigned to recover power generation costs which are presently higher than that using conventional energy.

              Actual records of power generation using renewable energy will be certified by a neutral third party and a "Certificate of Green Power" will be then issued to customers who originally requested the service. With this certificate, customers can gain proof that their own electricity is generated from a natural energy resource and achievements of environmental protection measures including energy conservation (fossil fuel savings) and CO2 (Greenhouse gas) emission reductions can be quantified.

              Thus, TEPCO is aiming to accelerate the use of renewable energy by creating a market for environmental value added to facilitate the company's participation in environmental protection. This "Green Power Certification System" will initially be applied to wind power generation.

              Given the increasing public awareness for environmental actions taken by corporations, TEPCO is determined to be actively involved in increasing and furthering the use of renewable energy.

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