Trialling 24/7 carbon free energy in Japan

Japanese green energy company JERA Cross is piloting Flexidao’s blockchain-based technology to deliver certified renewable energy on an hourly basis.

With the Flexidao technology, JERA Cross, the newly established ‘green transformation’ solution subsidiary of Japan’s JERA, aims to pilot the matching and certifying of renewable energy production and consumption on an hourly basis based on the Energy Tag standard.

With this, JERA Cross will be able to provide its customers with effectively real time visibility and transparency on their electricity consumption.

“With thorough collaboration with Flexidao we are hopeful to provide valuable services for progressive clients,” commented JERA Cross’s President and CEO, Takao Miki.

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“As a result of that, we believe we can make a significant progress to drive initiatives for substantive CO2 reduction.”

The ongoing revision of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol requires a more rigorous accounting of reductions, with clean energy use a key tool towards such reductions and the demand for hourly matching to bring it near to real time.

The Energy Tag certification is aimed to provide a standard for such granular accounting with the matching of supply and demand of clean energy.

Barcelona-based Flexidao’s CEO Simone Accornero, adds the trial can serve as a model for tracking renewable energy sources on an hourly basis in the Japanese energy market.

“Flexidao hopes that this partnership with JERA Cross can drive significant advancements in Japan’s renewable energy sector.”

Subsequent to the announcement of the pilot, JERA Cross has announced a virtual power plant trial with 24/7 carbon free energy with the Shizen Connect energy management system to commence in December 2024.

In the trial, JERA Cross and parent JERA will act as aggregators of multiple power sources including renewables and batteries and will produce charging and discharging plans based on their demand forecasting.

The intention is with API integration with the supply-demand management system used by JERA Cross, for the Shizen Connect platform to control the batteries remotely, adjusting the charging and discharging plans based on real-time monitoring of actual data to balance supply and demand.

The trial is considered by the partners as a pioneering effort towards realising 24/7 carbon-free energy in Japan. Based on the results, operational methods will be established with the aim of early commercialisation.