TOKYO, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) reported 136.2 billion yen ($956 million) in first quarter net profit on Wednesday as lower fuel purchasing price helped the utility to recover from the last year's loss.

TEPCO, the operator of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which exploded in 2011 after a massive tsunami, paid 50.3 billion yen in compensation in the first quarter of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, it said in a statement.

Last month, Japan's nuclear regulator granted approval for TEPCO to start releasing radioactive water from the Fukushima plant - which Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency say is safe but nearby countries fear it may contaminate food.

Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, chief financial officer at TEPCO, told reporters that the company still plans to release Fukushima water this summer, but did not provide a specific timing.

TEPCO's peers, including Kansai Electric Power Co and Chubu Electric Power Co, posted record first-quarter profits on lower fuel costs and as some of them return nuclear power back into operation.

In the first quarter of 2022/2023 fiscal year, TEPCO saw a 48.1 billion yen loss, hit by a high fuel purchasing price and ongoing payments to the victims of the 2011 nuclear disaster.

($1 = 142.4400 yen) (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Katya Golubkova, Editing by Louise Heavens)