ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has jointly founded Senri Chikudensho Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Osaka-shi, Osaka) with Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Osaka-shi, Osaka; Masataka Fujiwara, President & Chief Executive Officer; hereinafter “Osaka Gas”) and Tokyo Century Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Koichi Baba, President & Chief Executive Officer; hereinafter “Tokyo Century”), launching its Grid-scale Energy Plant in Suita-shi, Osaka. This business utilizes funds from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s 2022 Subsidies to Support the Introduction of Diversified Energy Resources Contributing to an Increase in the Introduction of Renewable Energy.

As the moving forward towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 accelerates, the demand for energy storage system is expected to increase as a form of backup energy for power variations as the development of solar power and other renewable energy advances. With this business, Grid-scale energy storage Plant (rated output of 11MW, rated capacity of 23MWh) will be installed on vacant land owned by the Daigas Group (Osaka Gas Group). By using the energy from these energy storage batteries in the wholesale electricity market, the balancing market, and the capacity market, ITOCHU will contribute towards the stabilization of Japanese electric systems. Installation will begin in the first half of FY2023 and operations are expected to begin in FY2025.

With this business, ITOCHU will design and supply energy storage system and power conditioners from its own procurement network, and will also build and maintain an optimal storage system. Osaka Gas will oversee trading in the energy market and control of the storage plant by utilizing its knowledge of the energy trade. Tokyo Century will oversee business management operations based on its experience in asset management in the leasing business.

In addition to having experience selling around 50,000 home energy storage batteries in total, ITOCHU is expanding its product lineup to include grid-scale storage battery systems for industrial and power grids. ITOCHU is also promoting the social implementation of diversified energy systems, such as demand response utilizing remote-controlled software installed on home energy storage batteries. ITOCHU will work on this business together with Osaka Gas and Tokyo Century to ensure that the balancing power produced through this business can contribute to the further introduction and stable supply of renewable energy.