“Utilizing IT (information technology), effort is being made work toward the optimization of the supply of energy on a regional basis, aiming at energy conservation and the reduction of costs to society, making for a Smart Community. Kita Kyushu, which is one of 4 areas where the smart community concept is being implemented, is involved in a project for using hydrogen to store surplus electric power. A supply of electric power (20,000 kW) is obtained from the natural gas cogeneration power station of the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Tobata steel mill, adjacent to an area (about 120 ha) of Yawata, Kita Kyushu. Along with this a mega solar facility, a 400kW fuel cell, and a small wind power generator were installed. This has enabled them to supply 10% of the supply off power in the form of new energy.

The test field involves 230 regular homes, including apartments, along with corporate offices, hospitals, and commercial facility complexes. The amount of electricity consumed by these users and the amount of electricity supplied by cogeneration power stations and renewable energy facilities are monitored in an integrated fashion by a regional energy monitoring system, in effect the regional power station. Along with monitoring the demand for electricity which changes at times from one moment to the next, it also forecasts demand. Based on these forecasts it controls the amount of electric power generated. At the same time it endeavors to get the users to conserve electricity and to cut down during peak periods of use.

A power fee system called a dynamic pricing system was introduced to be applied for daytime use during the summer. What this means is that when the amount used increases, the power fee also goes up. The fees range from 15-150. If the amount of power used is kept down, the power fee becomes cheaper. This was a social test to verify how much the power consumers would conserve on power by altering the power fees. With the consumers of power themselves participating actively in leveling out the gap between supply and demand, the suppliers can keep down excessive investment to meet the demand during peak periods. In effect this would lead to a reduction in the cost of supply electricity. Having the consumers and suppliers mutually share information by making full use of a communications network so as to be able forecast the amount of electricity used and the demand would enable electricity to be consumed wisely.

In this test, hydrogen is used for the storage of surplus power in a region. Specifically, when there is a surplus of power in a region, hydrogen is generated through a hydrolysis. When this amount is insufficient, power is generated using fuel cells. Electric power is stored in the form of hydrogen. Hydrogen works as a storage catalyst for electricity, the same way as a secondary battery. Iwatani is participating in this test. The auto producer Honda is also conducting a test for supplying power with the hydrogen of fuel cell vehicles as the source of power for home use. This is a test for using hydrogen as a backup power supply.

In this region, basically hydrogen as a byproduct of steel plants is supplied by pipeline. Kita Kyushu Hydrogen Town which operates hydrogen stations and fuel cell cogeneration is conducting the test. This is a global scale advanced region, and this is a test to see how much hydrogen can contribute within a smart society.”