Tokyo Electric Power Company will launch an "ECO Support Plan" in July. 
The "ECO Support Plan" aims to support the efforts of TEPCO's customers 
to conserve energy in the home and office and will also include activities 
to preserve forests, including tree planting and forestry management, 
with the objective of enhancing carbon dioxide absorption capacity.

 The "ECO Support Plan" will offer "ECO Support Money," which will be a 
type of bonus equivalent to the volume of carbon dioxide reductions 
achieved through the introduction of environment-friendly equipment and 
systems. "ECO Support Money" will be provided to individuals who have 
bought Eco Cute, (*1) an electric hot water supply system with high 
efficiency in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and to office building 
owners who have adopted ESCO (*2) Projects to conserve energy - if they 
have concluded a pledge to cooperate with TEPCO to reduce carbon dioxide. 
In this way, TEPCO will support and encourage the activities of 
"ECO Families" and "ECO Offices" that are taking proactive measures to 
prevent global warming.

 In addition, TEPCO will donate a sum money equivalent to that paid out 
in ECO Support Money for utilization in forest preservation activities 
throughout Japan, including management of public forests, in cooperation 
with local governments. In so doing, TEPCO aims to contribute to increasing 
the carbon dioxide absorption capacity of forests. 
 TEPCO has conducted tree planting activities for many years at 
its Oze Tokura forest (*3) in Gunma Prefecture, with the cooperation of
 volunteers. However, the forest preservation activities that will be 
undertaken through the ECO Support Plan represent new "forest generation" 
efforts that TEPCO will engage in jointly with our customers. TEPCO hopes 
to provide opportunities for our customers to take a "hands-on" approach 
and participate directly in "forest generation" close to their homes in 
forests owned by local governments or TEPCO's Oze Tokura forest.

 For our customers who support this new plan, TEPCO aims to provide a real 
sense of the contribution to global warming prevention that their purchase 
of Eco Cute hot water systems and energy conservation efforts have made, 
by reporting regularly on the aggregate amount of carbon dioxide reduced 
and the results of tree planting activities.

 By adopting "TEPCO'S ECO" (*4) as the company's catchphrase, together 
with our customers, TEPCO is determined to carry out nature conservation 
activities and environmental protection activities to help prevent global 
warming. 


End



Reference

 The carbon dioxide reduction effects of the "ECO Support Plan" are 
projected to reach some 500 kg per year for each Eco Cute unit in the home, 
and some 200 tons a year in the case that electric power consumption is cut 
back by 15 percent at medium and small office buildings  (calculated on the 
basis of annual electricity consumption being 3500 MWh). In addition, some 
100 kg of carbon dioxide is projected to be absorbed annually as a result 
of forest preservation activities (when Y5,000 per Eco Cute unit is spent 
on forest management).

*1 "Eco Cute"
 Eco Cute is a home-use hot water supply system, using a natural coolant CO2, 
developed through joint research and development by TEPCO, Denso Corporation 
and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry. It uses a heat 
pump system that converts atmospheric heat into heat energy using electricity. 
Since this system enables more than three units of heat energy to be obtained 
from one unit of electricity, this type of hot water supply system is expected 
to reduce energy consumption by as much as 30 percent compared with the 
conventional combustion-type hot water supply systems.

 The name "Eco Cute" is used widely by electric power companies and hot water 
supply system manufacturers as a popular general term for the heat pump hot 
water supply systems using natural coolant.

*2 "ESCO (Energy Service Company) Project
 This project provides a comprehensive service for energy conservation to 
owners of plants and buildings for business use, such as energy conserving 
diagnoses, improvement plan proposals, design and construction, maintenance 
and management, measuring and verifying energy conservation effects after 
improvements, and raising operating funds and financing, in order to create 
profits from the reductions in energy costs made possible after the improvements 
are carried out.

*3 Oze Tokura Forest
 This is a watershed protection forest that is 70 percent owned by TEPCO, 
adjacent to a large marshland in the mountains of Oze, Gunma Prefecture. 
Since 1997, TEPCO has conducted planting of "Buna" Siebold's beech trees by 
volunteers with the purpose of restoring vegetation there. By FY2003, a total 
of more than 3,000 people had participated in this tree planting campaign.

*4 TEPCO'S ECO
 For TEPCO, producing electricity and preserving the environment are inseparable, 
very important aspects of our business. Together with our customers, we at TEPCO 
never cease thinking about, creating and nurturing a comfortable daily life, 
and a better tomorrow for the Earth. 


End