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Policy and licensing / Japan

Japan: Long-Term Decarbonization Power Source Auction (capacity market, from FY2023)

Japan's Long-Term Decarbonization Power Source Auction, run by OCCTO since FY2023, pays winning new or replacement low-carbon capacity a fixed capacity revenue, and nuclear new build or replacement of at least 100,000 kW is eligible. Under OCCTO's final FY2026 rules, capacity-revenue support normally lasts 20 years, beginning in the fiscal year after supply starts; nuclear bidders may request a longer period in whole years up to 30 years. It is a support mechanism, not an award to any project.

Category
Funding and support programmes
Status
In effect
Instrument
funding programme · 長期脱炭素電源オークション (Long-Term Decarbonization Power Source Auction), part of the capacity market operated by OCCTO since FY2023; FY2026 bidding round governed by OCCTO's final application rules of 2 September 2026
Issued by
Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators (OCCTO), under guidelines of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (METI)
Jurisdiction
Japan
Affects
Project funding, Utility cost recovery
In effect from
2023 · actual · year
Expiry or completion
None recorded
Operative text
OCCTO: 長期脱炭素電源オークション募集要綱（応札年度：2026年度） (OCCTO final application rules for the FY2026 bidding round (2 September 2026))
Record reviewed · next review
2026-10-18 · 2027-04-18 (dates our review of this record; not a statement of the measure's present legal effect)

Legal and geographic scope

Auction for new investment in decarbonized power sources (new build or replacement), with contract payments funded by retailers' capacity contributions. Capacity-revenue support normally lasts 20 years, beginning in the fiscal year after supply starts. Nuclear bidders may request a longer period in whole years up to 30 years; the 40-year upper limit in the rules applies to other source types, not nuclear. Nuclear is an eligible source type for new build, replacement and safety investment in existing plants (investment for the July 2013 new regulatory standards), with a minimum of 100,000 kW sending-end capacity. The area is all of Japan except Okinawa and other remote islands. The supply-start deadline for nuclear is the end of the fiscal year containing the date 17 years (12 years if a statutory or ordinance environmental assessment is complete) after the capacity-contract date. For FY2026 the decarbonized-source volume is 5 million kW, of which safety investment in existing nuclear plants is capped at 1.5 million kW.

Not approved or still pending

The ANRE auction guideline itself was not readable; the operative text is OCCTO's final FY2026 application rules of 2 September 2026. No nuclear award or bid is recorded here, and no SMR project is named. Plants below 100,000 kW sending-end capacity are outside the eligibility table read.

Dated lifecycle

Projects or designs named by the source

Sources