Japan's Chugoku to upgrade oil-fired unit to burn gas

TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Japan's Chugoku Electric Power Co said on Thursday it plans to upgrade the 350-megawatt No.1 unit at its Tamashima power plant to burn natural gas besides oil, so as to cut fuel costs amid uncertainty over its nuclear power plant restart.

Work on the unit in western Japan, which started operations in March 1971, is set to start around the middle of the year and the unit will begin commercial operation in April 2014 after the upgrade, the company said in a statement.

The unit's power output capacity when it burns natural gas will be 340 MW, it added.

The company also aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions and reduce risks linked to securing stable fuel supplies, it said.

The Tamashima plant, located in Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture, is made up of three units that now use crude and fuel oil as feedstock, with a total capacity of 1.2 GW.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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Keywords: JAPAN CHUGOKU/LNG