日本关西成为天然气和电力的主场

中国石化新闻网讯 零售电力和天然气巨头关西电力和大阪天然气在关西地区争夺统治地位，其经济规模接近韩国，包括日本第二大城市大阪。

福岛核灾难后，日本国内垄断了近70年的电力体系，在2016年部分解体，一年后，零售天然气市场也随之自由化。

数百家新的电力销售商很快就加入了竞争，其中一些只有几十个客户。此后，关西地区出现了最多的天然气客户，也是第二多的电力客户，供应商。

最明显的就是关西电力和大阪天然气。

例如，关西电力现在向零售客户销售天然气。而这家已经是日本第三大电力供应商的公司还有一个优势：在过去的14个月里，它已经恢复了在福岛核灾难后闲置的四个反应堆的运行。

这使得它在7月将电价降低了5.4%，成为前10大电力垄断企业中倒数第四位。

大阪天然气拥有2千兆瓦的国内发电能力，主要由天然气发电，降低了关西的电价。

但关西电力仍然提供比大阪天然气更便宜的电力和天然气综合服务。今年，该公司还开始提供额外的折扣，例如免除天然气的基本月费，这加快了从其主要竞争对手手中收购客户的步伐。

詹晓晶摘自路透社

原文如下:

Japan's Kansai region a major battleground for gas and electric utilities

Retail power and gas heavyweights Kansai Electric Power and Osaka Gas are locked in a struggle for dominance in the Kansai region, whose economy is nearly the size of South Korea’s and includes Osaka, the second-biggest city in Japan.

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the country’s power monopoly system - in place for nearly 70 years - was partially dismantled in 2016, followed by the liberalisation of the retail gas market a year later.

Hundreds of new power sellers soon arrived on the scene, some with just a few dozen accounts. Since then, the Kansai region has seen the most gas customers, and the second-highest number of power customers, switch providers.

Nowhere is that churn more evident than with Kansai Electric and Osaka Gas.

Kansai Electric, for instance, now sells gas to retail customers. And the company, already the third-largest power supplier in Japan, has an additional advantage: in the past 14 months, it has resumed operations at four reactors idled after the Fukushima disaster.

That has allowed it to cut its electricity prices by 5.4 percent in July, making them the fourth-lowest among the former 10 power monopolies.

Osaka Gas, which has 2 gigawatts of domestic power plant capacity, mostly fired by gas, reacted by undercutting Kansai Electric’s prices.

But Kansai Electric still offers cheaper combined power and gas service than Osaka Gas. This year it also began offering additional discounts, such as waiving basic monthly fees for gas, which have accelerated the pace of customer acquisitions from its chief rival.