Toshiba, Next Kraftwerke launch virtual power plant joint venture into Japanese market

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
An online signing ceremony was held to mark the creation of the JV. Image: Next Kraftwerke Toshiba Corporation.

A collaboration to study the potential for virtual power plants (VPPs) between Japanese electronics giant Toshiba and German aggregator and power trader Next Kraftwerke has led to the formation of a joint venture (JV) between the two.

Our sister site Current± reported back in October last year that the pair had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to investigate the potential for VPPs, which aggregate together various distributed energy resources (DERs) to create a single larger asset for the grid.

Toshiba’s Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba ESS) has now agreed with Next Kraftwerke to form Next Kraftwerke Toshiba Corporation to start the JV, which will begin operation later this month and offer up VPP solutions to third-parties based in Japan.

Toshiba said that the launch is a response to the growing need for resources to step in to help power generation companies or electricity retailers balance the supply and demand of energy on the grid at 30 minute intervals.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Both companies own technologies which can forecast power generation and demand, carry out energy market transactions and control distributed energy resources, all of which can be used to reduce imbalance risks, to optimise trading opportunities and enhance customers’ profits in electricity spot markets and control reserve markets.

Japan recently committed to a national decarbonisation policy goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The country experienced a solar boom in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 as it introduced new large-scale, commercial and residential feed-in tariffs to encourage renewable energy adoption – in addition to residential tariffs that already existed from 2009.

However the past couple of years have seen Japan’s lawmakers largely put the impetus for deploying more renewables – primarily solar – onto the industry, which is tasked with coming up with effective business models to incentivise deployment.

Japan’s electricity market is also undergoing a long deregulation process in which dozens of new retailers have emerged, while the process of unbundling generation from transmission is also taking place: Japan’s grid and electricity supply have traditionally been the domain of 10 regional grid operator-utilities.

Meanwhile, a large and growing behind-the-meter energy storage market has grown as households buy battery systems to ensure their security of supply in the country which has been shown to be prone earthquakes and other natural disasters.

A market for control reserve will open up next year, while a trading scheme for renewables opens up the year after that, while renewables generators will become responsible for integrating their share of energy onto the grid while keeping it balanced. Kaz Iguchi, business development head at Tokyo-headquartered residential solar PV and energy storage company Sharing Energy, a startup among those looking to make a success of Japan’s deregulated energy market, told Energy-Storage.news recently that as rules change in the next couple of years, peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading using solar and batteries is likely to become a scalable business model in Japan.

The Toshiba Next Kraftwerke JV will be headquartered in Kawasaki, Japan, offering up Next Kraftwerke’s software-as-a-service solution, called NEMOCS. The platform allows operators of DERs to monitor, manage and dispatch their systems remotely. While the JV will focus initially on the Japanese market, both separate companies’ international sales channels could be leveraged to allow overseas expansion in future, the pair said.

The new company has been established with share capital of 180 million, while Toshiba ESS takes a 51% voting ratio and Next Kraftwerke the remaining 49%.

Business model for the new JV. Image: Toshiba.
20 August 2025
11am PST / 7pm BST
This session will begin with an overview of the California C&I market, including the latest regulatory developments, utility rate structures, and incentive programs such as SGIP. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of where the greatest opportunities lie—and how to navigate the complexities of program requirements to optimize financial outcomes.
26 August 2025
Sydney, Australia
Building on our successful global portfolio of energy storage network events including our successful Energy Storage Summit Australia, combined with the exponential buildout of large-scale energy storage, we are delighted to launch the inaugural Battery Asset Management Summit Australia in Sydney (26-27 August 2025). The Battery Asset Management Summit has been received worldwide with huge optimism and has quickly established itself as leading event series for connecting asset owners with optimisers, software providers, and many more.
16 September 2025
Athens, Greece
The summit will address the most pressing challenges, opportunities, and trends in the solar power production industry, as well as exploring its complimentary technologies: Energy Storage and Green Hydrogen.
22 September 2025
Bilbao, Spain
The EU PVSEC is the largest international Conference for Photovoltaic research, technologies and applications and at the same time a PV Industry Exhibition, where specialized PV Industry presents technologies, innovations and new concepts in the upstream PV sector. It gathers the global PV community to present and discuss the latest developments in Photovoltaics, to network and to conduct business. It is the world-renowned science-to-science and science-to-industry platform uniquely focused on the global PV Solar sector. The conference scientific programme is coordinated by the European Commission Joint Research Centre.
23 September 2025
Warsaw, Poland
The Energy Storage Summit Central Eastern Europe is set to return in September 2025 for its third edition, focusing on regional markets and the unique opportunities they present. This event will bring together key stakeholders from across the region to explore the latest trends in energy storage, with a focus on the increasing integration of energy storage into regional grids, evolving government policies, and the growing need for energy security.
30 September 2025
Seattle, USA
Our unique audience included potential industrial hydrogen users, energy suppliers, project developers, debt providers and investors, utilities, gas TSOs and government officials. The event went beyond simply focusing on hydrogen and explored the role of other derivatives and P2X applications. Join us next year to find out more about the financial and environmental opportunities of Green Hydrogen.

Read Next

July 31, 2025
Tesla’s Shane Bannister revealed that he doesn’t think Tesla will sell another battery in Australia that’s not grid-forming.
July 31, 2025
Fluence has penned its largest battery energy storage system deal globally for a 2,000MWh battery storage project owned by Australia’s AGL.
July 30, 2025
Applications are invited for New York’s first competitive solicitation for a gigawatt of grid-connected energy storage facilities.
July 30, 2025
Utility and power generation firm EnBW has presented a 400MW/800MW BESS project proposal to a municipal council in Germany, for deployment at its Philippsburg nuclear power plant which is in the process of being decommissioned.
Premium
July 30, 2025
Energy-Storage.news Premium speaks with Sean McEvoy, President of North America at GridBeyond, following its optimisation of Gore Street Energy Storage Fund’s (GSF) Big Rock energy storage project.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter