OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation announced that the company will provide project management for a large scale proof-of-concept demonstration of demand response (DR) management in the residential sector. The test is part of the Yokohama Smart City Project (YSCP), an ambitious program to apply and verify a range of smart grid technologies in a modern city. It will start on July 1, with the participation of about 1,900 residences, and will test electricity demand management in the summer heat.

Japan's summers are hot and humid, and for many people the first response is to turn up the air-conditioning. The Yokohama project will test the usefulness of dynamic pricing1 in lowering power consumption during times of peak demand.

Overall system management is carried out by a centralized Community Energy Management System (CEMS) that interfaces with a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) installed in each of the participating residences. When weather forecasts indicate that the following day will be particularly hot, the CEMS requests each residence to cooperate in cutting consumption in peak hours, and offers cash incentives to reduce electricity by such means as changing air-conditioner settings, switching off home appliances, shifting the time for doing the laundry or just going out. Amounts paid will be based on the scale of reduced electricity in each household.

The YSCP is promoting demand side consumption and testing the effectiveness of DR as a tool with a large number of consumers. The proof-of-concept test will monitor the effectiveness of DR against different levels of temperature and days of the week, and investigate how people respond to DR incentives.