TEPCO - Japan's largest power company - is to use Centrica's demand response technology to provide flexibility services to the grid
UK energy giant Centrica has struck a deal with Japan's largest power company, TEPCO, to provide industrial demand response services to the Japanese grid.
TEPCO is set to use Centrica Business Solutions' 'FlexPond' software across the Kyushu region of Japan to 'turn down' demand from industrial energy users during times of peak demand on the grid, Centrica announced today.
The so-called 'virtual power plants' approach will also incorporate the region's high number of renewable energy projects, managing generation and consumption to balance demand on the grid as supplies of clean power vary.
"At Centrica we believe that one of our key responsibilities is to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint," said Pieter-Jan Mermans, global optimisation director for Centrica Business Solutions. "Building virtual power plants that mitigate the need to build new fossil-fuelled plants is a key part of that so giving other energy and utility companies access to our software is an important way for us to support global decarbonisation efforts."
Demand response is seen by many energy experts as an essential component of a low-carbon, smart grid, helping to balance intermittent generation with the needs of large energy users, curbing the need for investment in costly back up power plants in the process.
The move is the latest in a string of clean tech and smart grid moves from Centrica, including its recent investments in new smart home technologies, its participation in a new blockchain-based smart grid trial, and its introduction of electric vehicle tariffs.