On August 7, 2018, Osaka Gas entered into an agreement with a San Francisco-based software start-up company, Growing Energy Labs (Geli), to launch a joint demonstration project to optimize the operation of storage batteries using a virtual power plant (VPP) software platform. The project will be implemented at “NEXT21”, an Osaka Gas experimental housing unit, and at Imazu Ground, another testing site, addressing the needs of residential customers and commercial users respectively. In order to evaluate new Internet of Energy* services using accumulator batteries, the project will adopt Geli’s VPP software platform and energy storage control technology, which is already in use in the U.S. and Australia.

Given the extensive deployment of renewable energy resources in Japan, particularly solar power, it is expected that the need for VPP platforms will increase in the future to address grid instability. In order to acquire key knowledge about VPP and storage battery control technologies, Osaka Gas invested in Geli in March this year, and has been preparing for this demonstration project. As part of the project, the co-optimization between PV self-consumption and the frequency response control will be tested at the NEXT21 site. The Imazu Ground site will be used to evaluate the co-optimization between the demand charge management and the frequency response control, based on the expected customer needs for commercial and industrial use.

* “Internet of Energy” refers to the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into distributed energy systems to optimize the efficiency of energy infrastructure and demand-side management.