With Japanese companies keen to learn from their counterparts in deregulated energy markets such as the UK, the Japan Energy Challenge provided the ideal forum for exchanging ideas. Andy Colthorpe reports.

Kruger Energy said that along with smart software and technology solutions company Peak Power, it has deployed three commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage projects into a behind-the-meter virtual power plant (VPP).

Tesla Inc. today showed off recent activities in the virtual power plant (VPP) space at Tokyo’s Smart Grid Expo, with a view to bringing them at scale into the country’s rapidly changing energy market.

This week’s news-in-brief stories come from across Solar Media’s publishing channels.

Schneider Electric has partnered with Autogrid for a “grid management solution” that can incorporate and optimise diverse assets including customer-sited energy storage.

Energy storage company Moixa, together with automotive giant Honda, have launched a vehicle to grid (V2G) project at Islington Town Hall that will help to provide constraint management for the building, as well as facilitate a switch to electric vehicles.

HOMER Energy announced that it has been bought by global safety certification company UL, following the completion of the aquisition on 16 December.

Susan Kennedy has stepped down as CEO of Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), with chief product officer Seyed Madaeni appointed to take her place.

Thanks to “innovative business models” and the combination of PV with batteries, Japan’s “solar boom” is far from over, market expert Izumi Kaizuka of RTS PV has said.

In the latest release, Sandia has emphasised the growth in interest in behind-the-meter (BTM), customer-sited energy storage systems.