Technology leads progress, and see how smart grids will revolutionize the future

In Japan, the shutdown of nuclear power plants has led to a significant increase in fuel costs for thermal power generation. Therefore, since May 1, Kansai Electric Power Company and Kyushu Electric Power Company have increased their electricity prices by an average of 9.75% and 6.23% respectively. The same is true for other power companies. Tokyo Electric Power Company raised its prices in September last year, and Hokkaido Electric Power Company, Tohoku Electric Power Company, and Shikoku Electric Power Company are also applying to the government for price increases. From the fiscal year settlement results of Japan's 10 largest power companies released on April 30, except for Hokuriku Electric Power Company and Okinawa Electric Power Company, 8 companies ended up in the red.

　　Unfortunately, there are still no signs of improvement in the performance of power companies. The reason is that the full restart of nuclear power plants has not yet been achieved, and the depreciation of the yen has caused the price of imported natural gas to rise. However, it is politically unacceptable to raise electricity prices indefinitely to make up for the losses of the power industry. While the Japanese government reorganized the Nuclear and Atomic Energy Safety Agency, it also strengthened the strict review of electricity price increases, so power companies began to make every effort to reduce fuel costs.

　　However, the efforts of power suppliers to reduce power generation costs by cutting fuel costs are limited. In this case, power suppliers and power consumers can only work together to save energy in a different way than before. In this process, it is crucial for both parties to work together to create "new market value" and achieve "combination of products."

　　The concepts of "new market value" and "commodity matching" are related to the "value chain" proposed by Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard University in the United States. The concept of "value chain" is used to analyze the accumulation of added value in various processes such as purchasing logistics, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, sales, and services in corporate activities. The value chain was originally a theory used to improve the efficiency within a company and to achieve differentiation from competitors, but when analyzing smart grids, it is important to consider not only one company, but to build a value chain in cooperation with partner companies.

　　“Smart grids” can shorten the distance between electricity supply and demand

　　The efficient connection between power suppliers and demanders is a new business. Americans are good at establishing concepts for businesses that do not yet have prototypes, and they named the new business "smart grid."

　　The principle of smart grid is to build a power network that imitates the communication method of the Internet to efficiently manage the supply and demand of electricity. Heat is generated during the transmission process of electricity, resulting in energy loss. In addition, in order to avoid power outages, sufficient power generation capacity must be prepared to meet demand during the peak of electricity consumption in midsummer. In short, the efficiency is very low.

　　Smart grid is expected to improve this inefficiency. The "grid" in the English word means transmission and distribution network, which can be called "electricity version of Internet". The Internet connects the sender and receiver of information instantly, making information exchange more efficient. Routers are communication devices that connect networks together, and their working principles are applied to the connection between energy supply and demand.

　　Specifically, the smart grid is an overall system that combines the following elements.

　　The electricity price is changed according to the time period to ensure that the electricity consumption during peak hours is not too large.

　　Keep track of power companies' supply capacity and business and household electricity demand at all times, and efficiently match the two.

　　Optimize the paths of power flow within the power grid to avoid losses due to increased burden on specific locations.

　　In order to reduce the burden of operating costs, a mechanism (carbon credit) is adopted to obtain benefits from reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

　　Smart grids not only reduce energy waste, but also strive to create "new market value" in business and attract more companies to participate. In the process of realizing this mechanism, new industries are expected to be formed through cooperation between the energy, home appliance and software industries.

　　Companies that previously had no contact with each other began to cooperate

　　In 2005, the US Electric Power Industry Magazine introduced the term "smart grid," and since then, the term has been widely used. Since then, companies that previously had no contact with each other have begun to cooperate. Energy, home appliances, housing, automobiles, software and other companies have joined hands through "smart grids" and started to try to provide new market value to society. GTM Research, a US company, said that as a smart grid-related business, there are already new ideas that span multiple fields.

　　The foundation of the smart grid is the "smart meter." Currently, analog meters are commonly used, and power company employees check the meter needle installed in the home to confirm the amount of electricity used, while smart meters use digital ones.

　　Although it is impossible to measure the power consumption at each time period with analog meters, the use of digital meters can provide unprecedented energy-saving services, such as real-time power consumption and time-based adjustment of power prices. In addition, "demand response" can be achieved, that is, controlling power consumption during the day when power prices are high and using it at night when power prices are low, or dispatching surplus power to places where power is insufficient.

　　The US government has set a goal of installing smart meters in 26 million households by 2013. In the past, even in sparsely populated areas such as deserts and pastures, power company employees had to go door to door to read meters, but after installing smart meters, the communication function can be used to confirm the power consumption. This also helps power companies save manpower.

　　In addition to smart meters, some new markets are expected to be formed, such as "grid optimization" that transforms the power grid into the Internet, "smart home appliances" that support multiple energy-saving methods, "V2H" (vehicle to home) that uses pure electric vehicle batteries as home batteries, "smart homes" that extend the principles of smart home appliances to the entire house, and "smart buildings" that extend the same principles to commercial buildings. The UK Energy Research Institute and Germany's Siemens predict that in a few years, the global related market will grow from the current 3.5 trillion yen to 4 trillion yen.