Jointly Implementing an Operation Support Service for Thermal Power Generation

Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. (President & Director: Satoru Katsuno, "Chubu Electric Power") and NEC Corporation (President and CEO: Takashi Niino, "NEC") today signed a basic agreement to jointly implement a thermal power generation support service for domestic and overseas power producers.

Drawing on the massive amount of operating data gained from thermal power generation equipment, this service harnesses the latest technology to both monitor equipment failure indications and to analyze factors contributing to such failures or power generation efficiency reductions, and in turn scales up the operation of thermal power stations.

This service will entail the development of an operation support system, combining Chubu Electric Power's advanced operational maintenance skills for thermal generation with NEC's data analysis technologies. Launching the system will allow for boosting both the reliability and equipment safety of Chubu Electric Power's thermal power equipment. Moreover, the two companies are planning to offer the service together to domestic and international power producers, thereby assisting the operational maintenance of thermal power equipment owned by operators.

Chubu Electric Power and NEC has been engaging in a joint research at Hekinan Thermal Power Station and elsewhere since FY2014 to render thermal power operation support services commercially feasible, and the two parties agreed to implement this project together in the wake of confirming its effectiveness. Development of this system will start this fiscal year, with sights set on completing the initiative in FY2017.

Both companies will continue to work towards enhancing their respective corporate value. This will be achieved by rolling out services that take full advantage of their expertise, and serving to step up the safety of social infrastructures by such initiatives as thermal power generation technology innovations based on incorporating Iot, AI, big data, and other such leading-edge information technologies.