Homes with PV installed that are no longer eligible for the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) (“After FIT homes”) will start appearing from November 2019. Around 540,000 homes throughout Japan are expected to become After FIT homes in 2019, with SEKISUI HEIM homes accounting for around 60,000^*1, or more than 10%. In addition, another 10,000 SEKISUI HEIM homes or more per year are expected to become After FIT homes from 2020. With the end of FIT, the sale price of excess power will drop sharply. This means that ideally, After FIT homes should use PV power as much as possible within the home, and any excess power will be sold under new conditions.

  According to the government’s promotion policy, as of FY2016 renewable energy reached around 15% of all electrical power in Japan. However, the amount of energy generated using PV varies greatly according to the weather or time of day, so issues such as worries over large-scale blackouts and increases in opportunities to use greenhouse gas-emitting thermal power generation to adjust the supply and demand balance are becoming increasingly stark as PV use spreads.
  We need to solve these issues to further popularize the use of renewable energy.
  Therefore, since FY2010, SEKISUI CHEMICAL has been carrying out demonstration tests for energy management that allows power to be routed flexibly between multiple homes through the remote automated control of home-use storage cells, working on initiatives to verify VPPs that can bring together the electricity from home storage cells in multiple homes, and proposing systematic methods to bring this to fruition.

  The SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group promotes environmental management based on contributions through three activities, “Expand and create Environment-Contributing Products,” “Reduce environmental impacts,” and “Conserve the natural environment,” based on our long-term environmental vision, SEKISUI Environment Sustainability Vision 2030. In particular, we focus our efforts on contributing to the environment through businesses and products developed under “Expand and create Environment-Contributing Products,” and have been actively developing and spreading energy self-sufficient homes that include solar panels and storage cells. We have sold a total of some 200,000 homes with solar panels and some 19,000 storage cells.^*2
  In addition, we provide energy saving investment incentives program (12 billion yen over FY2017–FY2019), and are expanding our initiatives to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, in June 2018 we obtained the first world’s first SBT Initiative certification in the chemical sector, and are promoting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions not only at SEKISUI CHEMICAL but throughout our supply chain.

(1) To provide an attractive excess power trading service for SEKISUI HEIM customers whose homes are no longer eligible for FIT
  SEKISUI CHEMICAL recommends energy self-sufficiency lifestyles through the use of storage cells to its customers whose homes will no longer be eligible for FIT, in consideration of the importance of balancing both ecology and economy. An analysis of past electricity production and consumption data^*3 shows that around 2,100 kWh of the annual 5,400 kWh of electricity generated can be consumed in the home during the day, while the remaining 2,300 kWh or so can be stored in storage cells and used at night. However, it is estimated that around 1,000 kWh of electricity are not stored in the storage cells, but sold as PV excess power, so we will provide a welcome route for After FIT homes to deal with this.

(2) Social contributions toward achieving a renewable energy society
  Excess power purchased from SEKISUI HEIM customers is supplied to other customers as well as used effectively to bring about a sustainable society. For example, by using this power in SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group plants and offices in Japan, we can provide the world with new SEKISUI HEIM and other products produced using zero-greenhouse gas emissions electricity.
  In addition, we need to ensure a suitable ability to adjust electricity supply to cope with changes in the production of renewable energy in the overall power system if we want renewable energy to become more common. Therefore, by FY2020 SEKISUI CHEMICAL will construct a VPP, which can be considered as a single power plant formed by the multiple storage cells installed in SEKISUI HEIM customers’ homes. This will allow us to aim to create a service to return some value to our customers for their cooperation to a VPP.

(1) Power purchase service

●Purchase target
  Excess power generated from solar panels on SEKISUI HEIM customers’ homes

●Planned purchase price (Note 1)
  The price will be set at a level that encourages self-sufficiency through storage cells
  ・Customers with solar panels and storage cells (Note 2): 12 yen/kWh
  ・Customers with solar panels only:9 yen/kWh
  Note 1: The purchase price until March 2021 for customers whose homes are no longer eligible for FIT by March 2020.
  Note 2: Customers who have purchased and installed storage cells/VtoH from domestic SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group companies.

(2) Power sales service

●Sales (supply) targets
  Customers living in SEKISUI HEIM homes, SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group companies
  *The sale price will be announced in July 2019.

(3) Service utilizing storage cells (VPP)

  Currently being developed for commercialization

April 15, 2019
    Information sent to customers whose homes will no longer be eligible for FIT in FY2019
    Provisional application for excess power purchase starts

July 2019
    Information on full application sent to customers making provisional applications / Full application starts

September 2019
    Power sales start (limited to the TEPCO/Chubu Electric Power areas)

November 2019
    Nationwide sales and purchasing starts

●Purchased
    143,000 MWh/year (FY2021)
      Equivalent to the power needed for the production of 12,000 SEKISUI HEIM houses
    675,000 MWh/year (FY2030)
      Equivalent to the power demand of the SEKISUI CHEMICAL Group’s 73 domestic bases including plants and offices (as of FY2017)

●Sold
    179,000 MWh/year (FY2021)

●Purchases
    55,000 contracts (end of FY2021)
    186,000 contracts (end of FY2030)

●Sales
    38,000 contracts (end of FY2021)