Okinawa Electric Power (OEPC, Headquarters: Urasoe City, Okinawa Pref.)[1] announced on February 4, 2021 that it has invested in NEXTEMS, a Japanese energy aggregator (Ginowan City, Okinawa Pref.), and will own 23.4% of the shares of the company. NEXTEMS will become an affiliate of OEPC.

NEXTEMS, established in April 2018, provides customers with energy products, including solar power generation systems, battery storage, and EcoCute.[2] The company has been conducting demonstration tests of distributed energy resources’ (DERs) remote monitoring and control with controllable loads. The demonstration tests have been primarily in the Miyakojima area. OEPC and NEXTEMS had previously cooperated to jointly promote renewable energy service providers’ businesses in Miyakojima, and their cooperation helped the area to receive the prestigious New Energy Award in the First Fiscal Year of Reiwa Era (FY 2019) from the New Energy Foundation (NEF, Headquarters: Tokyo)[3], a Japanese organization that promotes the development of renewable energy technologies.

Promoting renewable energy as a main power source is one of OEPC’s focus areas under its long-term Zero Emission Initiative to tackle climate change. Leveraging NEXTEMS’s knowledge and experience with installing DERs control systems, OEPC aims to develop the new solar power and storage battery service that was announced in January 2021.[4]

[1] https://www.nextems.co.jp/profile/

[2] EcoCute is an energy efficient electric heat pump, water heating and supply system.

[3] https://www.nef.or.jp/english/aboutnef.html

[4] https://www.okiden.co.jp/shared/pdf/news_release/2020/210204.pdf