The Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Headquarters, TEPCO Energy Partnership (TEPCO EP) and TEPCO announced on September 26 that they have signed a PPA (power purchase agreement) outside the facility. In addition, demand response (DR) using thermal storage tanks will be used to maximize the use of electricity derived from renewable energy.
Business Plan
(Source: Joint announcement of Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Headquarters, TEPCO EP, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Azbil and Energy Pool Japan)
Under this PPA, two new solar power plants will be constructed in Ibaraki Prefecture and Gunma Prefecture, and power supply will begin sequentially from March 2025. The total solar power output is approximately 1.3MW (700kW in Ibaraki Prefecture, 643kW in Gunma Prefecture). The total annual power output is expected to be approximately 2.4 million kWh (1.34 million kWh in Ibaraki Prefecture and 1.06 million kWh in Gunma Prefecture).
Image of DR operation using thermal storage tanks
(Source: Joint press release of Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Headquarters, TEPCO EP, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Azbil and Energy Pool Japan)
The power will be supplied to the Yomiuri Shimbun Headquarters building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo and the Tokyo Kita Plant in Kita Ward, Tokyo, providing about 13% of the electricity used by both facilities. When selecting the site for the power plant, we paid attention to environmental protection issues, such as choosing abandoned land to avoid deforestation.
In addition, a 2,000-ton heat storage tank is installed underground in the Yomiuri Shimbun Building, which stores hot and cold heat generated from electricity at night when electricity demand is low and dissipates heat during the day for heating and cooling purposes. With the use of renewable energy electricity, the system stores heat and uses it for DR operations by storing heat during periods of excess electricity (when there is a surplus of renewable energy), such as during the day during the spring and autumn holidays when air conditioning is rarely used.
By introducing a thermal storage control application developed by Azbil, the operating time of thermal storage and thermal radiation can be flexibly changed. By combining the power generation and demand forecasting technology of Japan Power Corporation (Minato-ku, Tokyo) and DR operation know-how, the system adjusts the operating time of thermal storage and thermal radiation to the optimal time based on the prediction.
It is expected that this plan will eliminate the excess renewable energy in the Yomiuri Shimbun Building and achieve a self-consumption rate of 100%. This project introduces measures that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and TEPCO EP have cooperated on as part of the "Social Implementation Project for Energy-saving Management (Demand Response) Using Thermal Storage Tanks (Ending in 2023)" and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's subsidized project " Thermal Storage Tanks, etc. The project will be implemented with the support of the Energy Use Management Promotion Project.
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