Kyushu Electric Power announced that the number of its corporate customers who switched to retail power suppliers as of Apr. 1 reached 2,117. This is the first time an electricity retailer has secured more than 2,000 contracts since the new entities were granted permission to operate in 2000 under a partial deregulation scheme. With its nuclear power plants suspended, Kyuden’s finances have suffered, and the company upped its rates for corporate customers (i.e., businesses that buy 50 kW or more of power on contract) by an average of 11.94% on Apr. 1. This allowed the private retailers to set prices lower than Kyuden’s rates, thus leading to the uptick in cancelled contracts. According to a source, the customers Kyuden has lost include government agencies and mid-size companies with factories. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, May 2
