Part of a 1MW/6MWh project using NGK’s NAS batteries for utility BC Hydro in Canada, which went online in 2013. Image: BC Hydro.
Technologies from US vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions company Nuvve and NGK’s sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries will provide ancillary services and other grid stability applications in Japan.
Japan’s grid-balancing market is not widely open to participation from batteries today, with regional power companies effectively responsible for keeping their grids stabilised and keeping the frequency regulated — at 50Hz in eastern and northern Japan and at 50Hz in the west and southern parts of the country.
However, in partnership with Chubu Electric Power Miraiz, the electricity retail and demand response aggregation spinoff of one of those regional power companies, Chubu Electric Power, and Toyota Group’s trading arm Toyota Tsusho,…