Japan, which has declared achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050, aims to increase its renewable energy (RE) ratio to 36-38% by 2030. Meanwhile, challenges in stable power supply due to expanding renewable energy, for which it is difficult to control the generation amount, are becoming apparent.
Distributed power sources such as household storage batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) dispersed throughout society hold promise to contribute to solving these challenges. Systematically controlling and consolidating these distributed power sources allows them to be used as a significant power source. This concept is called VPP (Virtual Power Plant).

The advantage of VPP is that it can secure power while effectively utilizing familiar distributed power sources, and also leads to suppressing the operation of large power plants that cause carbon dioxide emissions.
Also, in cases where solar power plants cannot output as much as predicted due to weather conditions, it’s possible to maintain power supply-demand balance using VPP technology.
To realize large-scale VPP, distributed power sources like storage batteries need to be controlled using IoT technology. Also, communication speed is key to continuously output necessary power accurately.

ENERES is working on VPP technology innovation and commercialization by forming partnerships beyond the energy industry through demonstration projects.

“FY2023 Demonstration Project for Building Next-Generation Technology Utilizing Distributed Energy Resources such as Storage Batteries”　~Improving profitability of RE aggregation and practicality of DER aggregation~

Following the VPP demonstration project implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry over five years from 2016, ENERES participated as a consortium leader in two demonstration projects implemented over three years from fiscal 2021.
In the “Renewable Energy Aggregation Demonstration Project” aimed at improving renewable energy generation prediction accuracy, we achieved results in developing methods for utilizing market trading to increase profitability, building prediction models for snow effects on solar power generation, and predictions related to offshore wind power.

In the “Demonstration Project for Further Utilization of Distributed Energy Resources” aimed at securing supply capacity and balancing capacity necessary for power supply-demand adjustment by controlling distributed power sources (distributed energy resources) owned by the demand side such as household storage batteries, we achieved results particularly in demonstrations anticipating expanded utilization of low-voltage resources in the supply-demand adjustment market from fiscal 2026, stably achieving practical response performance through group management according to resource characteristics.
ENERES aims to build a new power system that balances renewable energy as the main power source with stable power supply by feeding back the results obtained from these two demonstrations to each commercial service, and will continue working on developing aggregation technology based on supply-demand management expertise, our founding business, to contribute to realizing a decarbonized society.

Sharing EV batteries with regions through “Balancing Capacity Procurement”

Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining attention toward realizing a decarbonized society. EVs, which use an electric motor powered by batteries instead of an engine for propulsion, are attracting attention as environmentally friendly vehicles as their CO2 emissions during operation are considered extremely low.
Based on the idea of utilizing EV batteries for supply-demand tightness during non-driving hours, we started a demonstration project jointly with REXEV, which operates an EV car-sharing business, in fiscal 2020. Since fiscal 2022, we have been utilizing EV batteries as supply capacity during power supply-demand tightness in “Balancing Capacity Procurement (Power Source I’)” [*1].

ENERES aims to control large numbers of EVs, which are predicted to become more widespread, and utilize them as balancing capacity and supply capacity.

[*1] Transitioning to capacity market from fiscal 2024.

Utilizing Distributed Power Sources in the Supply-Demand Adjustment Market

Power is managed to maintain balance between demand and supply in 30-minute units. Power needed to adjust supply-demand balance within one hour before actual demand occurs is called balancing capacity. In 2021, the “supply-demand adjustment market” started where general transmission and distribution operators procure balancing capacity.

It’s not only large power plants that provide balancing capacity. Distributed energy resources (DER) are gaining attention recently. ENERES developed a system (DERMS) to manage and control DER in 2019 utilizing technology developed through demonstration projects. Using this system enables the collection of power from multiple DERs to respond to balancing capacity output requests. ENERES acts as an aggregator to support companies wishing to provide power to the supply-demand adjustment market using the DER they own, and provides DERMS as SaaS to businesses developing their own aggregator operations.
The importance of balancing capacity is increasing in a society where weather-dependent renewable energy (RE) is increasing. ENERES will contribute to stable power supply and RE expansion by helping to activate the supply-demand adjustment market.