Japan electricity prices in eastern wholesale markets bounced back in the week ended December 20, pushed up mainly by Hokkaido which was covered by snow-or-watery clouds with less capacity for thermal power supply, while western markets logged whisker-thin losses on the combination of stagnant electricity usage in the mild winter and low supply from photovoltaics (PV) stations under gray skies.

Based on the Rim Power Index (Day ahead 24 hours), the weekday power prices in the eastern market, including Hokkaido, Tohoku and Tokyo area, averaged out at 9.33 yen per kilowatt hour (kWh), up 0.56 yen/kWh or 6.4% from the previous week, meanwhile prices in the western, made up of Chubu, Hokuriku, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu area, at 8.27 yen/kWh, down 0.08 yen/kWh, or 1.0%.

The premium of Hokkaido against Tokyo broadened to 1.22 yen/kWh from the prior week's 0.29 yen/kWh, with Hokkaido's average 10.46 yen/kWh (prior week's ave:9.18 yen) and Tokyo's 9.24 yen/kWh (8.89 yen), which are calculated from data compiled by the Japan Electric Power Exchange. The Hokkaido market seemed to respond more readily to PV because of an oil-fired thermal power plant. The 350-megawatt plant postponed the schedule to resume its operations to Dec 26 from Dec 14. Although a normally cold air mass intermittently hit the Tokyo area, most of daily maximum temperatures for Tokyo were projected at higher levels than western big cities such as Osaka and Nagoya.

Osaka and Nagoya's daily max temperatures were forecasted at the mid-10's degrees Celsius or more as a whole. The warm temperatures appeared to cancel out upward pressures from PV's weak supply.

On the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX), the weekday average of System Price (Day ahead 24 hours), which are computed based on the data of 9 areas, clawed back to 8.67 yen, adding 0.17 yen/kWh, with the average volume standing at 908,953 megawatt per hour (MWh) equaling practically to 906,423 MWh recorded a week ago.

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