4 companies start smart grid demonstration project in Rokkasho

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Japan Wind Development Co (JWD), Toyota Motor Corp, Panasonic Electric Works Co and Hitachi Ltd have started a smart grid demonstration project in Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture.

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The project aims to verify technologies that allow for the efficient use of energy toward the achievement of a low-carbon society. The project will use only renewable energy sources, such as the world’s first wind power stations with dedicated large-capacity batteries and photovoltaic power-generation systems.

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Building smart grids requires meeting the electricity supply conditions (power sources and transmission lines) and communications infrastructure of each specific country and region, as well as introducing such elements as renewable energy generation facilities, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, storage batteries, EcoCute (an electric water heating and supply system) and heat storage units.

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Currently, possibilities in newelectricity distribution methods and vast advances in information and communications technology (ICT) are raising the prospect of a shift from today’s conventional supply-demand adjustment approach to one that optimizes both supply and demand.

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JWD, Toyota, Panasonic Electric Works and Hitachi have built an isolated grid — an electricity network independent from the main grid — in Rokkasho Village, which has favorable conditions for wind power generation and has Japan’s largest wind power generation capacity. The companies will work jointly to develop and demonstrate technologies for optimizing supply and demand effectively.

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