Japan power firms paid $1 billion for CO2 credits in 2008/09
* 9 power firms reveal carbon credit costs in annual earnings
* Some firms consider buying AAUs in addition to CERs
TOKYO, May 14 (Reuters), Risa Maeda - Japan's power firms paid a combined 100.1 billion yen, or $1 billion, for carbon credits in the year that ended on March 31, their annual earnings reports showed, giving investors a rare glimpse into how much utilities are spending to offset their own carbon emissions.
The sector is one of the biggest buyers of carbon credits from abroad and is expected to buy more as it struggles to meet its voluntarily set targets, which were based on a model in which its carbon-free nuclear plants run at 80 percent or more of their capacity -- well up from 60 percent now.
The inclusion of carbon credit figures in earnings statements, effective from 2008/2009, gives investors information that is otherwise largely hidden, on how each firm strikes a balance among burning relatively cheap coal, funnelling money abroad through carbon credits and investing in costlier but cleaner alternatives at home.
Japan's No.1 utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co <9501.T>, and five others, spent a combined 75.6 billion yen on credits for redemptions in the past year as part of efforts to help Tokyo to meet its goals for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
Hokkaido Electric Power Co <9509.T>, Japan's No. 7 power firm, said it would report its total carbon credit costs in the final year of the five-year Kyoto pact to March 2013. The three others said they had reported in their latest earnings the cost of carbon credits to be redeemed later.
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