The operator of the largest coal-fired power plant in Hokkaido said Monday it may restart another of its three units by the end of the week, improving supplies of power to the prefecture that was recently rocked by a powerful earthquake.

Hokkaido Electric Power Co. had initially planned to restart its Tomatoatsuma plant's No. 4 unit in or after November. The unit has the biggest power output of the three at the facility, with a capacity of 700,000 kilowatts.

First, the utility will gradually boost power output from Monday and carry out a trial. It decided to restart the No. 4 unit after discovering damage to a turbine was less severe than first thought, with the componentry not requiring disassembling.

The three-unit plant, which normally provides about half the prefecture's electricity, was taken offline by the Sept. 6 quake that triggered a prefecture-wide blackout.

The utility restarted the No. 1 unit last Wednesday. The No. 2 unit will be brought back online from mid-October, a delay from its initially planned date in the first half of this week, due to a problem.

The Tomatoatsuma plant's No. 3 unit was scrapped in 2005.