The entry of grid storage batteries is occurring one after another (the photo is made by Tesla, Inc.)
There are a number of companies entering the "system storage battery" that is directly connected to power transmission lines and used like a power plant. Sumitomo Corporation will operate a system that bundles electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Hokkaido by the end of FY2023. Orix and others are aiming to enter the market after FY2011. We see the revision of related legislation and the opening of a new market for buying and selling electricity supply and demand as a new business opportunity, and hurry up technological innovation.
Sumitomo Corporation will collaborate with FORR Energy (Yokohama City), which is jointly invested with Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., to start construction of a large storage battery with an output of 6000 kW in Chitose City, Hokkaido in FY2010. Approximately 700 EV batteries are combined into one and regarded as a storage battery. It will start operation in FY2011.
Sumisho has conducted a demonstration experiment of a grid storage battery at the site of a closed school in Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture. In April 2010, a demonstration machine was put into operation in Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture, and installation in Hokkaido has been under consideration since around 2017-18. I decided to use it because I had a plan to put it to practical use. In the future, we will expand to other areas of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kyushu, etc., aiming to introduce a total of 100,000 kW by FY2014.
ORIX will enter the market jointly with Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. The output of the storage battery to be developed is expected to be tens of thousands of kilowatts, aiming for operation after FY2011. Ormat Technologies, a major geothermal power generation company invested by ORIX, also operates storage batteries for grid systems. Orix and Kanden will use Omat's knowledge to develop the Japanese market.
ENEOS plans to start operations at the Muroran Plant in Muroran City, Hokkaido by the end of FY2011. It plans to build thousands of large storage batteries in terms of general household storage batteries, and is expected to start construction within 22 years. Mitsuuroko Group Holdings will also start operations in Hokkaido at the end of 2010.
Behind the succession of companies entering the market is the revision of the Electricity Business Law and the development of the electricity market.
The government approved a bill to amend the Electricity Business Act in March, aiming for enforcement in April 2011. The amendment clarified the role of system storage batteries, which had been ambiguous until now. A storage battery that is connected to a transmission line and sells more than 10,000 kilowatts is positioned as a "power generation business." The current law does not assume the case where a storage battery is connected to a power transmission line by itself.
The expansion of the electricity market is also a tailwind. There are three major markets that are expected as a means of securing profits for grid storage batteries. There is a "supply and demand adjustment market" that adjusts the supply and demand of electricity to get rewards, a "capacity market" that buys and sells the supply capacity of electricity, and a "wholesale electricity market" that trades the amount of electricity the next day.
Companies especially expect the supply and demand adjustment market. The market is divided into five categories based on the speed at which adjustment power is provided. Currently, it is up to the adjustment power that can respond within 15 minutes, but from 2012, the exchange of adjustment power that can respond within 10 seconds or 5 minutes will start. Since the power of grid storage batteries can be adjusted instantly, opening a market that requires adjustment in a short time will be a tailwind.
The capacity market is buying and selling future power generation capacity, and the auction started in 20 years. If the number of grid storage batteries that can secure a certain output increases, it will be easier for electricity retailers to obtain the necessary electricity in advance in view of the summer and winter electricity demand seasons several years ahead.
The wholesale electricity market trades electricity every 30 minutes. Recently, when troubles occur at power plants, market prices tend to skyrocket. If you use a grid storage battery, you can apply it to the business of buying and storing electricity during times when the market price is low and selling it during high hours.
Japan's electricity supply and demand is unstable. In March, due to an unseasonable cold wave, the first power supply and demand tight warning was issued within the jurisdiction of TEPCO Holdings and Tohoku Electric Power. In April, several major electric power companies such as Tohoku Electric Power Co., Ltd. requested renewable energy power generation companies to curb the output of solar power generation, and the supply-demand environment changed completely in just one month.
Sadayuki Matsudaira, a lawyer at Nishimura & Asahi Law Office, who is familiar with energy-related legal systems such as electric power and gas, said, "Rechargeable batteries are indispensable for balancing the further introduction of renewable energy such as solar power and the stability of the power grid." Point out. Unless storage batteries become more widespread, the stable supply of electric power remains uncertain.
The problem with storage batteries is high cost. According to the current basic energy plan, the power generation cost of industrial storage batteries is about 240,000 yen per kilowatt hour as of FY2007. The government has set a goal of reducing the cost to about 60,000 yen as of FY2018, but the process chart for cost reduction has not been set.
Each company will enter the grid storage battery, but it will be difficult to identify profits unless the market actually starts to move.
Another drawback is that there are few power lines available. Even if you want to send power from a storage battery, you cannot send it if there is no space in the transmission line. National agencies estimate that it will require an investment of 3.8 trillion to 4.8 trillion yen to double the capacity of transmission lines. It is undecided who will invest when and how. A drastic review of the electric power system is indispensable in order to keep the motivation of companies to enter.
