Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) held the First Distributed Energy Platform Conference in Tokyo on November 1, 2019. The conference aimed to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss and share information to promote distributed energy systems that are combined with a renewable energy utilization model that integrates energy supply and demand.

The traditional structure of energy supply and demand in Japan has been transformed by five major factors: the dramatic drop in the cost of solar power systems; the development of innovative digital technologies along with the possibility of structural changes to the electric power system; the recent electricity market and system reform in Japan; current efforts to meet energy customers’ demands for the utilization of renewable energy (e.g. RE 100, SDGs, etc.); and the increasing need to strengthen the resiliency of the energy supply system due to the increased frequency of natural disasters. These structural changes have spurred rising demand for the deployment of distributed energy systems. Therefore, METI provided a discussion forum to facilitate discussions about issues and challenges between various stakeholders, including electric utility companies, energy services providers, home builders, mobility-related operators, renewable energy customers, local governments, and financial institutions.

During the meeting, stakeholders discussed the challenges that they may face when deploying and operating distributed energy systems. The conference addressed the following issues;

(1) How to visualize the value of renewable energy

(2) How to promote and deploy energy integration technologies (i.e. battery storage systems, Electric Vehicle (EV), and Virtual Power Plant (VPP))

(3) How to balance distributed energy systems with existing power systems and networks

(4) How to utilize existing grid distribution lines for regional microgrids.[1]

[1] https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2019/10/20191021003/20191021003.html