IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2018 - 48

Facilities

Hokkaido
EPCO
Generating
Facilities

50 Hz
60 Hz
Tohoku
EPCO

Hokuriku
EPCO
Kyoto
Chugoku
EPCO
Kyushu
EPCO

Shikoku
EPCO

Osaka
Kansai
EPCO

Okinawa
EPCO

Tokyo
EPCO
Tokyo
Nagoya
Chubu Electric
Power
(CEPCO)

Hydro
Thermal
Nuclear
Renewable
Total

Substations
Transmission
Lines

Overhead
Underground
Total

Distribution Lines
Distribution Poles
Distribution Transformers
Metered Customers (Approx.)
Number of Smart Meters (Approx.)

No.
196
10
1
4
211
939

Capacity
5,497 MW (16.6%)
24,015 MW (72.4%)
3,617 MW (10.9%)
39 MW (0.12%)
33,170 MW
124,770 MVA
10,866 km
1,395 km
12,261 km
133,382 km
2,802,257
1,590,277
10,740,000
2,920,000 (27%)

figure 1. The supply area of the ten utilities and CEPCO facilities (as of March 2017).

metered customers, 33,170 MW of generation capacity,
12,261 km of transmission lines, 124,770 MVA of substation
transformers, and 133,382 km of distribution lines. It has
also started installing smart meters for its customers. About
27% (2.92 million) of the smart meters have been installed
as of March 2017 (figure 1).
In April 2016, cePcO was divided into three internal companies: fuel and Power generation, transmission
and distribution, and customer service. each company is
designed to operate autonomously and respond flexibly to
changes in each business environment under the electricity
system reform. the power network company is responsible
for the stable electricity supply by properly maintaining
t&d infrastructure and operating the entire network, which
includes keeping a balance between generation supply and
demand in the chubu service area. In 2020, the power network company will be legally separated from the cePcO
parent company to further secure the neutrality of the t&d
business in accordance with the new law for conducting
electricity business.
In the cePcO t&d supply area, the capacity and energy
amount (purchase power) of solar generation reached
6.3 gW and 6,500 gWh at the end of fiscal year 2016. More
than 480,000 customers have installed PV generation. this
has significantly impacted cePcO's t&d operations such
as frequency and network voltage control.

IT System Development to Meet the
Electricity System Reform Requirements
OcctO was established in 2015 to optimize nationwide network operation, and its It systems began operation in April
2016. since then, OcctO has been in charge of managing
interconnection power flows and monitoring nationwide
48

ieee power & energy magazine

generation and power network operations. the Japanese government introduced a new rule that transmission system operators (tsOs) must purchase fIt renewable energy beginning
in April 2017. the tsOs sell the energy to JePX to promote
renewable energy development and optimize wide-area energy transactions. In response to this situation, cePcO developed a coordination server with OcctO as an interface
between OcctO and cePcO tsO (t&d company), as
shown in figure 2. this enables cePcO to receive scheduled
power flows from OcctO and for cePcO to transmit various data to OcctO according to its network operation code
such as network information, outage scheduling, and regulation scheduling. By using the power trading system, cePcO
can transmit energy imbalance calculations and renewable
energy management data to JePX and bid all fIt renewable
energy (kWh) into JePX's day-ahead spot market.
cePcO developed this intercompany system to better
respond to the rapid business environmental changes and comply with the electricity system reform, which requires t&d
utilities to become competition neutral.

PV Output Forecast System in the
Central Dispatching Control Center
cePcO's central dispatching control center (cdcc) is
responsible for keeping a balance between generation supply
and area demand (megawatt). Based on past demand trends
and current weather forecasts, the cdcc continuously estimates area demand and determines necessary generation
units and output scheduling of each unit in detail while minimizing fuel costs and the number of stand-by units to the
greatest possible extent.
however, at the end of fiscal year 2016, there were already
over 6,300 MW of third-party, grid-connected solar (PV)
march/april 2018

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