Key Point of President's Regular Press Conference

December 2020 Regular Press Conference : President Hayashi's Message

December 22, 2020
Chubu Electric Power Co.,Inc.

I will be discussing the following matters today:

Today, I would like to take a look back on the past year and discuss our plans for the coming year.

Looking back on this past year

Looking back on 2020, I can say definitively that it has certainly been the “first year of change” during which unprecedented changes took place at ever faster speeds not only for society and the energy industry, but also Chubu Electric Power.
In April of this year, we spun off our power transmission and distribution divisions as well as sales divisions and transitioned to a new business structure, which we have also referred to as our “second founding.” That was also when I was installed as president of Chubu Electric Power.
My first job as president has been to respond to the spread of COVID-19, which is still plagues us today. My first thoughts have been to give top priority to the safety and health of our employees, their families, partners and customers and to do our utmost to prevent the infection from spreading. We have also fully utilized telework, videoconferencing and other new means to perform our duties, and have done our utmost to ensure a stable supply of energy and maintain the level of service that our customers expect.
In addition, for our customers who have found themselves in difficulty due to COVID-19, we have rolled out a variety of measures that take into consideration as much as possible our customers’ situations. These are based on the idea that, unless our customers are doing well, we, the Chubu Electric Power Group, will not do well. We provide consultations on electricity bill payment and contracts and we have also offered plans for discounted electricity charges during summer.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed our social framework, people’s lifestyles, and, moreover, even our values.
We have viewed these changes as business opportunities and accelerated the provision of new value and services that we have been developing. One example of these efforts has been our initiative in the healthcare field which was announced today.
I believe that this initiative will also be able to be extended to patients with lifestyle-related diseases, whose condition may be aggravated if infected with COVID-19, in addition to expecting mothers, who have been the focus of our online medical services launched jointly with Keio University Hospital and Medical Data Card in June. In the future, we hope that this service is extended to other ailments and offered to other healthcare institutions.
Eradication of COVID-19 still does not appear to be in sight. We will continue to balance measures for preventing the spread of infection as well as maintain the continuity of our operations. We will create new value and offer this together with energy services so that we may deliver convenience, comfort, security and safety to our customers and society.

Plans for coming year

Continuing on, I would like to talk about our plans for the coming year.
In October, the Japanese government indicated that its goal is to effectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by the year 2050. The country has been engaged in lively discussions about how to achieve this goal. For Chubu Electric Power, 2021 will be the year of our “challenge to decarbonize.”
One of the pillars that Chubu Electric Power Group listed in our Management Vision is to realize a low-carbon society. Although we have made a variety of efforts and implemented initiatives toward that goal, I believe that we will need to accelerate initiatives in all areas of our business including power generation, transmission and distribution, and sales so that we may realize a carbon-free society in the future.
First, as I also discussed at last month’s press conference with regard to renewable energy as part of our power generation, we have made 25% progress toward our development goal of 2 million kW or more by around the year 2030.
More specifically, Akita and Chiba prefectures have started soliciting bids for offshore wind farms, so, in coordination with our partners, we want to leverage our strengths so that we will participate in these offerings and definitely be the successful bids.
In addition, nuclear power is a zero-emission power source that does not emit any CO₂ during production. In order to achieve the goal of decarbonization, we believe that it is necessary for us to prioritize the assurance of nuclear power safety and secure the trust of the community so that we may maximize use of this zero-emission power source.
As for Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, we will do our utmost so that the Nuclear Regulation Authority will be able to verify Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station’s compliance with the new regulatory requirements at an early date. We will also work to further develop our disaster prevention system and enhance training as well as strive to provide meticulous explanations to the community and society about both the tangible and intangible safety aspects of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station. These efforts will help the power station build even greater trust with society and the community.
Next, with regard to power transmission and distribution, as solar power and other decentralized power sources along with storage batteries become more prevalent, we have proceeded, among our other efforts, to install next generation power distribution equipment, such as smart meters and new voltage regulators, that make it possible to ascertain in real-time the complex flow of electricity.
Utilizing data that is able to be collected via these devices, our aim is to precisely regulate voltage and current so as to construct an advanced next generation power distribution network capable of maintaining connections with a large quantity of renewable energies as well as support local production and local consumption of energy.
In addition, as we aim to realize a carbon-free society, I am certain that there will be significant changes, new needs will emerge, and innovations developed in a variety of sectors ranging from society as a whole to our industrial structure as well as even the way that we live.
Within this “change,” we will advance sales together with our customers through initiatives that not only improve renewable energy supply capabilities, but also to achieve decarbonization, which will include CO₂-free menus for environmentally-conscious customers as well as solar power self-consumption services.
The Chubu Electric Power Group positively sees business opportunities in these changes as we move toward decarbonizing our society and lifestyle and we will contribute to decarbonization of our entire social infrastructure through proposals for electrification of energy even on the demand side and offering services that facilitate the electrification of mobility.
The year 2020 has been a year of such major change that we may even say the changes we anticipated to take place a decade from now have become our tomorrow. I believe that we have been able to take a solid step forward in that direction, efforts that have included spinning off operation of divisions of our company. In 2021 as well, we will continue to strive to maximize the value that we offer to our customers and society and work to offer solutions to the range of challenges that our society faces.
This ends my presentation.

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