No. 108: Low-cost and easily-expandable next-generation smart grid (July 21, 2010)

Osaka Gas, Waseda University, and VPEC that is a venture company in the power system development will jointly develop the smart grid technology for developing countries. The new system will link several simplified systems, each of which is made up of photovoltaic generation equipment, inverter, and storage cell. A Waseda university professor who is the professional in smart grip joined the development team. Named Eco network, the new system is primarily for a cluster of about 30 households and easily expandable. It allows for expansion depending on the number of population. The excess and deficiency of power that cannot be adjusted inside a cluster is manageable with the help of inverter. In the laboratory experiment, they saw good prospect of the technology. This system has the underling concept of local production for local consumption to decrease the dependency of the existing power system. The market related to smart grip is estimated at about 19 trillion yen in 2020.