News Releases

Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc.
Toshiba Corporation

Miyagi (Japan) – Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. (Tohoku EPCO) and Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba) today announced that they have started a collaborative investigation into applying IoT solutions and big data analytics to improving the operational efficiency and performance of thermal power plants.

The companies will analyze operational data amassed by Tohoku EPCO and develop methodologies for predicting anomalies and potential troubles in thermal power generating equipment. This will support the early provision of countermeasures that reduce unscheduled outage and improve performance

Tohoku EPCO and Toshiba will also analyze how to improve heat efficiency by comparing expected heat efficiency calculated from the design data against actual operational data, in order to identify the factors that degrade heat efficiency.

Hiroya Harada, Representative Director & President of Tohoku EPCO said, “In addition to improving the operational efficiency of the power plants, we will continue to make efforts to secure stable electricity supply and economic efficiency.”

“We look forward to securing very useful results through this investigation,” noted Takao Konishi, Vice President of the Thermal & Hydro Power Systems & Services Div., Toshiba’s Energy Systems & Solutions Company. “We believe that applying our capabilities in IoT and deep analytics to power plant operation and maintenance will allow us to improve our customer support and achieve real gains in power plant efficiency.”

The two companies aim to complete the investigation by the end of FY2017, and to construct a system that improve the performance and efficiency of the power plants based on the results. After further demonstration testing, the system will be installed in all of Tohoku EPCO’s power plants by FY2019.