Reuters
Chubu Electric Power Co Inc will take control of a Tokyo-based electricity supplier, sources said on Wednesday, giving the utility an entry into the territory of Tokyo Electric Power Co, which is struggling with losses from the Fukushima disaster.
The move by the Chubu Electric to buy an 80 percent stake in independent power supplier, Diamond Corp, is the first significant incursion by one of Japan’s regional electricity monopolies into another’s turf.
Each of Japan’s 10 regional monopolies controls everything from power generation to transmission in its own service area, an arrangement that allows them to easily shut out competitors.
A government attempt in the 1990s to deregulate the market for large users left only a small portion of electricity supply in the hands of independent suppliers like Diamond Power, which is owned by Mitsubishi Corp.