Commencement of the VPP construction demonstration project that uses customers' energy resources

Chubu Electric Power Company has today commenced a Virtual Power Plant(Note1) (VPP) construction demonstration project after successfully applying for the "VPP Aggregator Project," one of the categories in the "FY2019 Virtual Power Plant Construction Demonstration Project That Utilizes Demand-side Energy Resources(Note2)," a grant program offered by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The move follows a decision to issue the grant, made on May 30, 2019, by the grant program's grant distribution body, the Sustainable Open Innovation Initiative (SII).

With the power supply - demand adjustment market(Note3) set to be launched in April 2021, there are growing expectations for VPP, which uses customers' energy resources to adjust the supply and demand of electricity. Current challenges include identifying potential adjustment capacity and building its business model.

This demonstration project will examine the use of diverse energy resources in supply - demand adjustment, including vending machines, electric vehicles, spent car batteries, and air-conditioning and lighting at plant factories. It will also work on building a wide-area VPP network across business territories of General Electricity Transmission and Distribution Utilities.

Chubu Electric Power Company strives to meet customers' expectations by accelerating technological verification on VPP and building a new energy service using VPP.

(Note1) A mechanism that links power generation facilities using solar and other renewable energies, energy storage systems and customers' electricity-using facilities to make them function like single power plant

(Note2) A program in which the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry partially subsidizes the cost of demonstration projects for building VPP

(Note3) A market for General Electricity Transmission and Distribution Utilities to secure power sources (adjustment capacity) and eliminate the gap between supply and demand (supply - demand gap)