Tokyo: Fukushima operator Tepco said on Monday that it expected to lose about $1.29 billion (Dh4.74 billion) in the year to March, close to three times an earlier estimate, citing compensation and higher energy costs.

Tokyo Electric Power said it was on track to lose 120 billion yen for its full fiscal year, while also reporting that its net loss in the nine months to December shrank to 2.22 billion yen from a whopping 623.01 billion in the earlier year following Japan’s quake-tsunami disaster.

Late last year, the utility at the centre of the worst nuclear accident in a generation dramatically slashed its expected full-year loss to 45 billion yen, from 160 billion yen, citing asset sales and cost-cutting for the change.