Calculations in Environmental Accounting (2)

Collected Results

Environmental Costs

In FY2004, the plant and equipment (P&E) investment made in environment-related field amounted to ¥10.4 billion, accounting for 4.6% of the overall P&E investment (5.8% in FY2003), and the environment-related expenses came to ¥45.1 billion, amounting to 3.5% of the overall business expenses (3.4% in FY2003).

Compared with the previous fiscal year, the environment-related P&E investment declined by ¥600 million because the spending for construction of the Storage Center now under way, where pole-mounted transformers containing a trace of PCBs are stored, passed a peak. Despite company-wide efforts to improve the efficiency of management, the environment-related expenses increased by ¥1.2 billion owing to such factors as an increase in the amount of purchase of electricity generated by new energies.

Effects of Environmental Preservation

Under the efforts toward "Global Environmental Preservation," the amount of CO2 emissions reduction owing to power generation by nuclear power, which is deemed effective in prevention of global warming, and hydroelectric and geothermal power came up to 33.27 million tons. Compared with the previous fiscal year, the CO2 emissions were reduced by 4.99 million tons thanks to an increase in electricity generated that is partly attributed to the start of test run of Unit 1 of Higashidori Nuclear Power Station. The reduction in CO2 emissions brought forth by an increase in purchase of electricity generated by new energies and other factors reached 750,000 tons, up 230,000 tons from the previous fiscal year level.

In the area of "Resources Conservation and Recycling," 90.4% of the overall wastes was effectively used through the reuse and recycling of materials and equipment for electric power facilities, together with the effective use of coal ash for cement and other materials, thus maintaining the figure at 90% or more for consecutive three years.

In the area of "Regional Environmental Preservation," owing to the appropriate operation of pollution control facilities and the use of high-grade fuels, reductions of pollutant emissions remained at the level of the previous year registering 69,000 tons of SOx, 40,000 tons of NOx, and 690,000 tons of soot, respectively.

Economic Effects

The sum of reductions of expenses reached ¥39.2 billion attributable to various factors including, among others, direct income gained by selling valuables and others, reduction in fuel expenses through energy saving, and cost reduction owing to resources recycling and reuse.

Compared with the previous fiscal year, the monetary value in economic effects declined by ¥1.1 billion because the thermal efficiency of high-efficiency combined-cycle plants lowered to a small extent, thus reducing the effect of curtailing fuel expenses, in spite of the fact that the sales of waste copper wires and metal scrap produced from facility engineering works increased.