Chubu Electric Power Co purchased an 80% stake in Diamond Power Corp, an independent producer and supplier of power owned by Mitsubishi Corp and based in Tokyo. The move is significant because it will give Chubu Electric market access to Tokyo Electric Power Co's territory. Tokyo Electric is the operator of the embattled Fukushima nuclear plant. In Japan, there are ten regional monopolies in the electricity market that controls a particular region. These electricity monopolies are in charge not only of generating power, but of transmitting power in its service area. The arrangement also allowed them to shut out smaller competitors.
In the 1990s, the government attempted to deregulate the electricity market - a move which gave independent firms like Diamond Power a part in the playing field, no matter how small their electricity supply was. While no financial terms were disclosed about the acquisition, media outlets like Reuters and the Nikkei Business Daily, had earlier estimated that it was a JPY 1 billion or USD 10 million buy.
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