New Mexico project eyes smarter energy for Japan

A smart-grid demonstration project in New Mexico aims to find better ways to conserve energy and make wider use of renewable energy sources.

The initiative is a collaborative effort between the New Mexico state government, the Los Alamos Department of Public Utilities, a national research center run under the umbrella of the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. The project aims to test smart-grid related technologies that are difficult to experiment with in Japan due to the difference in the nation’s pre-existing power grids.

The project is scheduled to run through March 2014, with the first phase set to end in March 2012.

Among the companies participating in the initiative is Kyocera Corporation, which will take part in a smart-grid demonstration and a smart-house demonstration. The smart-grid demonstration will construct a power supply microgrid using distribution lines from a large-scale solar power plant to test related technologies and performance, and seek ways to minimize the effects of power output fluctuations.

For the smart-house demonstration, Kyocera will lead the construction of a hybrid energy management system that uses a 3.3-kilowatt residential solar power generating system, a 20-kilowatt storage battery and a heat storage unit. Featuring a home energy management system (HEMS) equipped with communication equipment and sensors, the smart house will be monitored and compared to other conventional homes in the surrounding area.

Kyocera will also help to evaluate distributed energy resources such as photovoltaics, including 10 different types of solar modules used at the demonstration site, as well as photovoltaics from other sites in Japan and the US, and fuel cells and gas engines being tested at a site in Albuquerque.