～Aiming to Further Improve Profitability to Accelerate Renewable Energy Aggregation Business～

KAWASAKI, JAPAN- Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions Corporation (hereinafter “Toshiba ESS”) and Next Kraftwerke Toshiba Corporation (hereinafter “TNK”) are proud to announce that their application for the renewable energy aggregation demonstration project has been accepted for the 3rd year in a row. Toshiba ESS will act as the consortium leader for this project.

The project aims at building a stable and efficient electric system with distributed energy resources (hereinafter “DER”) by demonstrating technologies to forecast renewable energy generation to be able to balance supply and demand. Furthermore, the project demonstrates the technologies needed for DER control by combining variable renewable energy generation such as solar and wind with flexible energy resources such as battery storages. To promote the business cases, a consortium^*1 was established consisting of 8 companies from the sector of renewable energy aggregators including Toshiba ESS and 5 companies of demonstrating collaborators.

In this project, the consortium will evaluate power generation forecasting technology, battery control technology, and market trading strategy technology by extending and upgrading the functionality of REBSet^TM, a renewable energy balancing system developed jointly by Next Kraftwerke (German company, Europe's largest VPP company) and Toshiba ESS.

Specifically, the consortium will further improve the accuracy of power generation forecasts by adopting more sophisticated power generation forecasting methods based on data obtained from past demonstrations, to improve profitability, and to avoid imbalance^*2 penalties– two important factors for the success of renewable energy aggregators.

Moreover, Toshiba ESS will verify the effect of improving profitability by evaluating storage battery control technology that responds to curtailment^*3, and market trading strategy technology optimized against the balancing market as well as the wholesale electricity market.

In last year's demonstration, the forecast errors for wind power generation were larger compared to solar power generation. To address these issues, the consortium will establish a working group to study the advancement of wind power generation forecasting technology.

Hideki Shingai, CEO of TNK and the Marketing Executive of renewable energy business unit at Toshiba ESS, commented on this project, “We are proud of this project being accepted for 3 years in a row. In order to achieve carbon neutrality, it is essential to make renewable energy self-sustaining, and the FIP regulation is the first step in doing so. We would like to create an environment where aggregators can play a role as a hub for supplying renewable energy inexpensively and stably by networking distributed renewable energy sources, grid systems, retailers, and consumers.

The transition from the FIT^*4 system to the FIP^*5 system began April 2022 in Japan, corresponding to the desired shift to renewable energy as the main power source.
Under FIP, power producers will be required to match their planned generation with actual generation in each 30 minutes slice^*6 based on accurate generation forecast. Furthermore, they will need to respond to market risks by optimizing electricity trading to match the volatile electricity market prices.
In the demonstration until last fiscal year, the REBSet^TM was used to reduce power generation forecast errors by using multiple weather models and by increasing forecast frequency, and this in combination with storage battery control, resulted in a reduction of imbalance and improved profitability, both of which are important for renewable energy aggregators. Applying these results, Toshiba Group is developing renewable energy aggregation business.

*1 Consortium Members
Consortium leader
Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation

Renewable Aggregators 8 companies
・Urban Energy Corporation
・NTT Anode Energy Corporation
・KANDENKO CO., LTD.
・Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.
・NEC Corporation
・Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc.
・Eurus Green Energy Corporation
・Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation

Demonstrating collaborators 5 companies
・Japan Renewable Energy Corporation
・TOYOTA TSUSHO CORPORATION
・Japan Weather Association
・PAG Renewables GK
・Next Kraftwerke Toshiba Corporation

*2: The difference between the forecasted amount of power demand (consumed) and the actual amount of generation in kWh .
*3: The reduction of power plant output by a general transmission and distribution utility in order to maintain a balance between supply and demand of electricity.
*4: FIT：Feed In Tariff
*5: FIP：Feed In Premium
*6: A mechanism that allows a power generation company or electricity retailer to make adjustments in slices of 30 minutes to match (1) the power generation plan and power generation result, and (2) the demand plan and actual demand result.

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