News Releases

Ishinomaki City to Introduce Community Energy Management System
with Toshiba and Tohoku EPCO, towards Establishing Smart Community

Selected for METI's FY2013 Subsidy for Projects
Promoting the Introduction of Smart Communities
9 Oct, 2013

Toshiba Corporation
Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc.
Ishinomaki City

Toshiba Corporation and Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. today announced that their joint plan to construct key elements of a smart community system in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi prefecture, has been selected for funding under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI)'s "FY2013 Subsidy for Projects Promoting the Introduction of Smart Communities" .

Ishinomaki is a fishing community and tourist destination on the coast of Miyagi in Japan's Tohoku region. The city, which had an estimated population of over 160,000 people in 2010, lies along Ishinomaki Bay and was devastated by the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake. A series of tsunami over 10 meters high swept through the city and traveled over 5km inland, leveling structures as they went and inundating over 13% of the city's 555 square kilometers. Today, under Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama, Ishinomaki continues to promote reconstruction under a recovery master plan unveiled this year.

Working with Ishinomaki, Toshiba and Tohoku Electric Power carried out a feasibility study for a "Smart Community Promotion Project" in 2012, now included in the city's recovery plan as an essential project. The project aims to realize "low carbon, eco-friendly town" that makes full use of renewable energy sources and a "safe, secure town with access to lighting and information," even during disasters. At the heart of the project is a Community Energy Management System (CEMS) for managing electric power demand and supply that will be installed selected model sites in Ishinomaki.

The overall CEMS will integrate two component systems that will work in cooperation with one another. Toshiba will provide overall project management and install a system that uses information from the demand side to manage power demand, while Tohoku Electric Power will deploy a system that stabilizes power supply from dispersed renewable power sources across the power grid. The CEMS will be operated jointly by companies. Ishinomaki will coordinate with related recovery projects, and promote renewable energy and public information campaign on the CEMS.

The first phase of the project, which will start in October and continue through to March next year, will realize energy visualization in Ishinomaki's disaster management centers.