Chubu Electric can restart older coal and gas-fired plants that had been taken out of service, but that will only make up about half the shortfall of the Hamaoka plant.
It calls for Xcel Energy to close four coal-fired units in the region, switch another to natural gas and build a gas-firedplant to help meet federal clean-air standards.
Critics say the idea of putting a whizzy new piece of kit on a 40-year-old power station was always daft, and that the pilot should be at a newer coal - or gas-firedplant.