In November 2024, Kanematsu Corporation (hereinafter “Kanematsu”) and Irish energy IT solutions provider GridBeyond Limited (hereinafter “GridBeyond”) signed a memorandum of understanding for the promotion and adoption of demand response in Japan. Demand response involves balancing power supply and demand to support the shift toward renewable energy.
■Demand response
Demand response involves balancing power supply and demand by controlling the power consumption of large power customers (electricity users) at times of supply-demand crunch, while also contributing to energy saving. Following revisions of the Japanese Act on Rationalization of Energy Use and Shift to Non-fossil Energy in April 2023, businesses with significant power consumption are required to report their demand response implementations and activities. As renewables such as solar power and wind power are variable power sources whose power generation is affected by variations in time of day and weather conditions, balancing supply and demand is a challenging task. Therefore, in order to promote the use of renewables, it is essential to spread measures such as demand response to adjust supply and demand. Furthermore, the newly established electricity market allows eligible business operators to go through a bidding process to earn revenue by reducing power consumption. Demand response not only offers economic benefits such as profit opportunities and electricity cost reduction, but is also expected to contribute to addressing social challenges, such as alleviating supply-demand shortages and promoting the use of renewables to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
■Business partnership
GridBeyond leverages proprietary cutting-edge technologies such as AI and robotics to achieve efficient electricity transactions (aggregation) through demand response. For more than a decade, GridBeyond has managed an electricity load totaling 2.6 gigawatts across more than 900 facilities in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. One of its unique strengths is the capability to develop the optimal customer-specific transaction strategy based on its extensive experience and insights in the latest electricity market trends. GridBeyond provides an automated one-stop solution designed to maximise costumer revenue by utilizing features such as price prediction data, facility constraint management, transaction plans tailored to market opportunities and facilities, and real-time bidding.
One of Kanematsu’s medium-term management plan, integration 1.0, launched in April 2024 aims to position the company as “a solutions provider leading the transformation of efficient and sustainable supply chains.” By adding GridBeyond’s solutions to our lineup of GX solutions, we will advance the promotion of demand response within the Kanematsu Group, as well as across our network of over 20,000 trading partners that we have built through trading in diverse fields. We aim to achieve a sustainable society through driving GX initiatives in our Gro up and customer operations.
■GridBeyond corporate profile
Name | GridBeyond Limited(Ireland) (Japan:GridBeyond G.K.) |
Establishment | 2010(Japan subsidiary established in 2022) |
Main office | Dublin, Ireland |
Founder | Michael Phelan |
Employees | 160 |
Business | Demand Response, Energy, Energy Resource Operation and Management, Electricity Market Transactions, Storage Battery Management, Energy Solution Services |
Business scale | Storage battery management: 500 MW / Demand response: 2,600 MW |
【Contact】
PR Section, Kanematsu Corporation
Tel:+81-3-6747-5000