Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Hokkaido Electric Power Co. and Shikoku Electric Power Co. reported a combined net loss of ?134 billion ($1 billion) for the 2022 fiscal year on Thursday, citing high fuel prices.

The trio are among seven utilities that requested increases in electricity rates from April and June to offset high input costs.

The government, seeking to address a historically high rate of inflation, delayed the requests and asked for a reassessment of costs.

Hokuriku Electric¡¯s loss reached ?88.4 billion in the year that ended on March 31, the deepest since it started disclosing consolidated earnings in 1994, and compared with a loss of ?7 billion a year earlier.

Hokkaido Electric¡¯s loss came to ?22.2 billion, against a profit of ?7 billion the year before, its first loss in nearly a decade, while Shikoku Electric reported a loss of ?23 billion versus the previous year¡¯s loss of ?6.3 billion.

Hokuriku Electric said revenue would take a hit of about ?1.5 billion a month without the requested rate increases.

Global energy prices have eased from peaks in the middle of last year after Russia¡¯s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated a post-pandemic energy crisis.

Still, input costs are high and utilities also need to align with the government¡¯s 2050 net-zero emissions goal.

Pressure only increased this month after the Group of Seven rich nations ¡ª chaired by Japan this year ¡ª reaffirmed a goal to achieve a fully or predominantly decarbonized power sector by 2035 and pushed for major new renewable energy goals.

Having nuclear power among its energy sources helped Kansai Electric Power ¡ª which powers Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe ¡ª to manage a net profit of ?17.7 billion but it was still 79% lower than in the 2021 fiscal year.

Kansai Electric said Thursday that its sales increased by 39% to ?4 trillion, helping to offset a hit its profit took from higher prices of fuel, including liquefied natural gas and coal.

The 2011 Fukushima disaster prompted Japan to idle most of its nuclear reactors but it is now trying to bring some back online and may even build new ones as the energy crisis prompts new policies in the energy-poor nation.

Kansai Electric plans to restart its two remaining Takahama nuclear reactors this summer and a projected increase in nuclear power¡¯s utilization rate to about 70% should help it to reach its profit target of ?305 billion this fiscal year.