OMRON Corporation and Waseda University will engage in research and development to build the foundations for factory energy management systems. Accordingly, the project aims to contribute to the solution of the energy issues faced by the manufacturing industry.

Earlier, the Cabinet Office of Japan led the selection of this R&D project as one of the smart energy management systems for the Phase 3 of the cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion (SIP). The planned period research and development period will run from FY2023 to FY2027.

Breaking Barriers

The use of renewable energy and other efforts toward carbon neutrality are advancing around the world for the creation of a sustainable society. In Japan, the Japanese government announced in October 2020 its goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. On top of that, there are demands for efforts for the decarbonization of society.

To realize decarbonization throughout society, it will be necessary to have individual efforts at the level of each company. This includes in-house generation of electricity using renewable energy and improvements in the efficiency of energy resource utilization.

In addition, it will also be necessary to go beyond those individual efforts and work on optimal energy management to enable the society to utilize energy resources.

However, in the manufacturing industry, where energy consumption is high, there has been no standardization for the use of the energy management systems in factories. As a result, the interfaces and rules necessary for the transfer of energy resource information is not available. For that reason, there remains a barrier that links companies to enable them to work together. Particularly, in optimizing energy usage.

Against this backdrop, there is a growing need for standardization of information data. Moreover, data related to the storage capacity of industrial storage batteries. Hence, there is a need for the preparation of systems to coordinate control at the regional level.

Energy System Optimization

To address these issues, OMRON and Waseda University will work to build a foundation for a new factory energy management system. Particularly, utilizing the sensing, data analysis, control technology and management know-how that OMRON has in a factory production site.

OMRON’s contributions will be combined with Waseda’s technology for energy system optimization using an industrial open network for control systems. Particularly, OMRON will continue the design and demonstration of energy management systems at its factories.

Meanwhile at Waseda, the Research Institute for Power and Energy Systems of the Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society will take the lead. Most importantly, they will focus in the optimization of specifications for common models for various companies.

By combining the knowledge within industry and academia, OMRON and Waseda will build the foundations for a factory energy management system. Primarily, for Japan but can be implemented in society to strengthen the international competitiveness of the energy solutions business. Thus, contributing to decarbonization.