Other Press Conferences

Other Press Conferences

July 2018 Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan Press Conference with President Katsuno

July 20, 2018
Chubu Electric Power Co.,Inc.

  • Today I will be discussing the economic trends in the Chubu region and Chubu Electric Power’s initiatives regarding our new services.

Economic Trends of the Chubu Region

  • Let me first address the economic performance of our company’s foundation, the Chubu region.
  • The Chubu region is a center for the “Monozukuri industry” with a robust manufacturing sector. The shipment of manufactured goods for Aichi, Shizuoka, Mie, Gifu and Nagano Prefectures make up approximately 27% of the national value. More than half of the electricity demand for this region is industrial.
  • The electricity demand for the Chubu region which was 124.4 billion kWh in FY2015, has increased by 5.3 billion kWh, of which 3 billion kWh was high voltage and extra-high voltage demand, to 129.7 billion kWh in FY2017.
  • In terms of monthly demand, high voltage and extra-high voltage demand has been up from the year before for eight consecutive months since October of last year—an indication of the Chubu region’s vitality.
  • I would now like to direct your attention to the Tokai region, comprised of Aichi, Gifu and Mie Prefecture, within the Chubu region. According to the most recent “Regional Economic Report” by the Bank of Japan, exports have been increasing, mainly in automobile parts and machine tools, and capital investment is expected to increase, mainly by automobile and machine tool manufacturers, in research development, strengthening production capabilities, and saving labor.
  • As a background factor, social structure innovation is occurring at an unprecedented scale and speed. This includes technological innovation, notably AI and IoT, and efforts to achieve low carbon society.
  • The automobile industry, a key industry for the Chubu region facing a period of “once in a century” change, is aiming to transform itself from a “automobile manufacturing company” to a “company that provides all travel-related services”.
  • I am seeing a wave of efforts to provide new value to society through innovations such as “electric vehicles”, “autonomous driving”, and “connected cars” in the wide-reaching automobile industry as a whole.
  • “Smart factories” that pursue production increases and labor savings using AI and IoT technology are being built in the machine tools industry, bolstered by demand increases from the automobile and robotics industries.
  • In these ways, initiatives to create new value and build new business models with society’s future in mind are being actively rolled out in the Chubu region, amassing and aligning the technological capabilities honed over the years through “monozukuri”.
  • The fruits of such labor are not yet apparent as concrete figures, but I am confident that the forward-thinking efforts characteristic of the Chubu region will be a “leading force” in powerfully driving society toward the future.

Initiatives Regarding Chubu Electric Power’s New Services

  • Next, I would like to address our efforts in grappling with large social structural changes.
  • In March of this year, our company reconsidered “the value we provide to our customers and society”. We declared in our “Management Vision” our strong commitment in pursuing further change and established a course of action to continue to be the chosen utility for our customers and society.
  • Our strengths lie in our solid technological capabilities, ability to make attractive proposals and the trust between the local customers built through our history as an energy business.
  • Community relationships have weakened and grown sparse with the diversification of personal values and lifestyles, and population decline. I believe that our corporate value lies in our ability to provide new solutions for this modern community using our strengths and the latest AI and IoT technology.
  • The “Connected Home” for example, will enable us to connect interactively with our customers using the transmission function of IoT devices such as sensors and smart meters which will be installed in the all our customer’s homes.
  • Using the most up-to-date technology such as the above, Chubu Electric Power will transform our energy infrastructure into a community support infrastructure. We will create “a new form of community” where everyone connects with each other unhindered by physical distance, rather it be a “customer” with another “customer” or the “customer” with a “corporation or municipality”.

Summary

  • The business environment surrounding our company is reaching a turning point with changes in social structure and electricity system reform, including the liberalization of retail gas and electricity markets, and the legal separation of the power transmission and distribution networks in 2020.
  • Chubu Electric Power will work toward continuing to be the number one choice for customers by providing services and solutions with high added value to the communities’ various social problems through its community support infrastructure.
  • This ends my presentation.

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