Interactive electric energy control - A new concept of the grid for low carbon energy future

In March 2005, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan released a report on a long-range vision for energy technologies. The report provides a few scenarios, one of which is that final energy consumption should mostly comprise electricity and hydrogen at the end of this century, in order to suppress GHG emissions to a sufficient level for sustainable growth. Moreover, the major utilization of electricity and hydrogen would make it possible to reduce primary energy supply in 2050 by about 40% of the extrapolated value. In this scenario, the ratio of electricity to final energy consumption will be almost 50% in 2050, compared to the value of 20% at present. On the basis of the concept of the government report, a voluntary group including the authors was organized, with sponsorship provided by NEDO (the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), to study the issues from the standpoint of views of electronics technology. In a society with a high ratio of electricity, the most important point is the optimization of the whole demand and supply system, in response to the diversification of both sides. Halfway through the study, the whole field of the study was found to surpass the concept of conventional power electronics, and the concept of 'Greentronics' was introduced. This consists of the fusion of information and energy technologies, including the fields of power supply, industry, transportation, heating, lighting, and so forth, aimed at a society with a high ratio of electricity. The members of the group shared the study subjects, and the authors' main one is the system study. In this paper, the concept of the power 'demand and supply chain', which makes it possible to build interactive control systems on the grid, is introduced in detail as one countermeasure.