Yokogawa Solution Service Corporation, a subsidiary of Yokogawa Electric Corporation responsible for the company’s control business in Japan, has announced that a community energy management system (CEMS) that it has built and delivered to the F-Grid Ohira, Miyagi Limited Liability Partnership is now fully operational. The LLP is headed by Toyota Motor Corporation. Over a two-year period, this system was developed by the LLP, built by Yokogawa, and field tested. Funding for the testing of this system, which was developed as part of a smart community project undertaken by the LLP, was provided by the Japanese government.
This LLP’s CEMS optimises the use of electricity by balancing the supply of power from the LLP’s own natural gas cogeneration and solar power facilities with the purchase of electricity from the local power utility, and efficiently controls the supply of electricity and heat to the members of the LLP. From each of these companies’ facilities, the CEMS collects data on electricity and steam demand, and, based on electricity and gas tariffs, calculates how much power should be generated by the LLP’s own power systems. In the aforementioned field testing of the CEMS (April 2013 to March 2015), the LLP members reduced their energy costs by 20%.
The LLP’s CEMS has a function that can also predict the energy demand at individual plants by collecting data that is strongly correlated with energy demand. Based on these estimates, the CEMS can be used to plan the optimisation of electricity and heat supply by, for example, adjusting the operation of the gas cogeneration system. The LLP members can also compare these demand estimates with actual results and use this to make adjustments that will save more energy.
The CEMS is connected with a backup power system and plug-in hybrid vehicles that can feed power to LLP members and the local community when there is a temporary interruption or shortfall in the supply of power from the grid. By encouraging plants to voluntarily participate in this electric power sharing scheme, the LLP has established a foundation for the full implementation of demand-response policies that will mandate such cooperation.
In the future, Japan’s energy policy will require communities and plants to make adjustments in energy supply and demand. By leveraging the expertise gained from its participation in the development of this CEMS, Yokogawa will be able to contribute at the regional level in building a distributed energy infrastructure.
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