Present status and future prospect of electricity infrastructure in Japan

The major electric power companies in Japan celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2001. As the privately owned and virtually integrated utility companies, we constructed much infrastructure for generation, transmission and distribution. We have developed new technologies for the rapid growth of demanded power, which reached about 20 times of the initial value in a half-century. After full growth, saturation of the power growth comes to Japanese power industry. Following the deregulation of power generation, deregulation of retail started in 2000, and the new scheme for the free market is under discussion in the governmental committees. In this presentation, I would like to talk about the present status and future prospect of infrastructure in Japan and related R&D work, such as HVDC transmission, UHV transmission etc.