Establishment of Energy Visions

As a first phase for establishing energy visions in Shinchi, we shall analyze community energy monitoring big data, in coordination with NIES and Shinchi, to clarify actual energy consumption in Shinchi. Then, the actual state of energy demand clarified by the analyses shall be visualized to deepen the local residents’ understanding of their energy consumption. Data analyses shall also be conducted for various businesses, in addition to local residents, for matching the energy demand and supply. Furthermore, energy bases that Shinchi possesses shall be utilized, such as combined heat and power based on natural gas, in order to examine relevant scenarios regarding town-wide energy supply, taken into account the introduction of renewable energy and environmentally conscious technologies. Through these analyses and examinations, the consideration of future visions for post-nuclear disasters community development shall be advanced, together with promoting “Environmental Energy Community Development” targeting Shinchi.

First, with regard to energy demand, Shinchi has developed Community ICT System called “Shinchi Life Assist System” that shares relevant information on local environment and lives. Currently, social verification experiments have been conducted targeting 75 households within the Town, which is planned to be expanded to 125 households in FY2018. Community ICT System measures electricity consumption according to electric devices within houses on real-time by electricity measuring equipment installed on distribution switchboards of respective houses, visualizing measured data by tablet devices that are installed inside houses. Since collected data in respective houses is integrated and managed by the central control system on the cloud server, it is possible to manage the information for an entire local community, unlike house energy management system (HEMS) that is separately installed in respective houses. This system enables the assistance to energy saving actions through various ways, such as announcement of energy-saving ranking inside the area and disseminating messages to encourage power saving at the peak of electricity demands.

In addition to relevant data on electricity consumption according to devices that is continuously collected by Community ICT System, the Project/shall assess feasible energy-saving potentials for respective households, through conducting surveys on detailed attributes of target households (such as thermophysical properties of the houses and living hours by household member), as well as analyzing relations between behaviors of those households and their electricity consumption. We shall aim at analyses and proposals of energy-saving actions from short-term to long-term perspectives, by assessing not only economical use of devices but also replacement timing of durable consumer goods taking into account their life stages. In addition, a model for household energy demand forecast shall be developed using respective family structures and temperatures as variables, based on relevant information such as surveyed household attributes, relevant data observed by Meteorological Agency, and their relations to electricity consumption. Community development based on relevant data III. shall be consolidated by utilizing this demand forecast model to forecast the future energy demands of the Town where demographic trends and climate conditions change.

In addition, an operation of Community Energy Management System (CEMS) is planned to start since FY2019, along with Shinchi Station redevelopment project. CEMS is envisaged to measure, moment by moment, energy consumption of factories and public facilities within the Project Area, apart from houses of the abovementioned 125 households. By analyzing measured cross-cutting hourly energy consumption data in these various facilities, a model shall be developed to precisely forecast energy demands after several hours within the CEMS project target area with relevant explanatory variables such as dates, time, and climate conditions. This model will enable the supplier to make their combined heat and power equipment operate efficiently, which utilizes natural gas that is planned in Shinchi, and to control the accumulators to store renewable energy such as solar battery and wind power generation, as well as the consumers to analyze their demand response control for air conditioners, lighting, standby Office Administrator (OA), and so on, mainly in public facilities. It is thought that matching energy demand and supply in the Town based on this model will lead to innovations in the field of community energy.

GSFS shall develop the model to match the community energy demand and supply by the abovementioned demand data analyses during a comparatively short period, and in parallel, shall consider scenarios regarding long-term energy supply and future visions for reconstruction community development. With several conditions such as its location in the coastline, its objective to recover from the nuclear incident, and its construction of LNG Pipeline, Shinchi is a preferable municipality to consider future visions of community energy demand. As concrete forms of future energy supply, there are renewable energy including solar power generation, wind power generation, and biomass for energy use, and the combined heat and power based on natural gas and so on, and the introduction of accumulators shall be considered as an adjustable function for solar and wind power generation. Although many of these individual technologies comprising future energy visions are already available for practical use, there are few examples yet to show actual effects in local communities. Therefore, their implementation shall be positioned as a social innovation. GSFS has promoted advanced research regarding algal biomass for multiple uses including energy use, and a venture enterprise was established based on results of this research. With regard to these kinds of energy sources, it is necessary to conduct assessments of their feasibility in a prudent manner. However, they have potentials to be a trigger for further social innovation.

In this Project, on the basis of the abovementioned conditions, we shall present a future vision of energy systems based on natural and artificial environments in Shinchi. Namely, first, relevant surveys shall be conducted regarding wind conditions and potentials of algal biomass production in Shinchi, and research and surveys shall be implemented to show possibilities of wind power generation and algal biomass as energy sources. In order to meet actual electricity demands in Shinchi, since the combined heat and power of natural gas supplied from LNG Pipeline is supposed to be a supply source, not only these renewable energy sources, through these optimum consolidation, we shall present an energy system of Local Production for Local Consumption that could minimize electricity supply from power system to the least level. In addition, we shall provide a simulation by a mathematical model on to what extent accumulators need to be introduced and what time shall be most optimal for charging and discharging, for enabling electricity to be autonomously and stably supplied.

As part of graduate education, graduate students shall conduct relevant surveys on houses and facilities within CEMS and analyze monitored data to identify factors of energy demands in the side of consumers. Working on both of field surveys and data analyses will enable graduate students to understand effects that concrete daily behaviors give on visualized energy consumption, to analyze energy demands from perspectives of daily lives, and to be trained as human resources for data-based community development. For the supplier, considering future energy visions is suitable for themes for graduate education, and Shinchi is an appropriate location for the field study. Energy education for graduate students will be an opportunity to contribute to revitalizing the local community, since it is inevitable for them to interact with local residents.