COVER STORY：FOREWORDToward Realizing Energy Systems to Support Society 5.0Work of Hitachi-UTokyo Laboratory
Author
Shinobu Yoshimura
- Vice President, The University of Tokyo
In 1987, graduated as a Doctor of Engineering from the School of Engineering, University of Tokyo (specialized in nuclear engineering).
View author details
Shinobu Yoshimura
- Vice President, The University of Tokyo
In 1987, graduated as a Doctor of Engineering from the School of Engineering, University of Tokyo (specialized in nuclear engineering). Following positions as a lecturer and Associate Professor at the School of Engineering and as Professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, he was appointed Professor at the School of Engineering in 2005. He was appointed Advisor to the President of the University of Tokyo in 2009. Following positions as Director of the Public Relations Office, Vice Dean of the School of Engineering, and a member of the Education and Research Council, he was appointed to his current position in 2017. His specializations are in computational mechanics and system design science. Other past appointments include Executive Council Member and Vice President of the International Association for Computational Mechanics and a member of the Science Council of Japan and he has received the International Association for Computational Mechanics Fellow Award (2014) and the Computational Mechanics Award of the Asia-Pacific Association for Computational Mechanics (APACM) (2013).
Energy Systems to Support Society 5.0
Individuals are the key players in the world of Society 5.0 and energy systems will be built to suit the particular characteristics of different communities. These communities will utilize people’s imagination to overcome various challenges, energy among them, and actively create new value. To this end, the operation of various different forms of infrastructure, including things like information and communication technology (ICT), vehicles, and logistics as well as electricity, gas, and water, will be coordinated along with the redevelopment of mechanisms for allocating energy in ways that are appropriate to the community. The aim is to deliver a diverse range of benefits such as CO2 emission reductions, local economic activity, convenient living, and resilience to disaster. This will involve the establishment of infrastructure and practices for distributing the value represented by energy not only in terms of quantity, but also of quality, such as the ability to balance supply and demand for renewable energy. Electrical grid systems will be rebuilt on the basis of coordination with communities, with policies and practices put in place across Japan’s entire power system that will deliver “economy, environment, energy security, and safety” (3E+S).
As a means of achieving this ideal, Hitachi-UTokyo Laboratory is undertaking the following studies.
Overview of Energy Systems to Support Society 5.0
Livening up Debate on Systemic Reform
Discussions on reforming the systems governing energy has been on the rise around Japan since the first announcement of results from the work of Hitachi-UTokyo Laboratory in April 2018. Last year, a number of groups were set up to discuss reform of the electric power system, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Subcommittee for Sustainable Power Systems, with options for systemic reform being raised to enable the achievement of resiliency and the transformation of renewables into a mainstream source of electric power in pursuit of decarbonization. One key area of work is the reform of distribution arrangements to deliver both greater investment and efficiency gains in the electricity sector. Progress is also being made on establishing systems for the release and dissemination of data and on clarifying who pays for what. The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) also published a policy document entitled, “Rebuilding Japan's Electricity System,” that identified the need for new policies for electricity in order to achieve Society 5.0.
Future Hopes and Plans
This year, the Hitachi-UTokyo Laboratory plans to present a third report on the results of work to date. Whereas the second report(1) issued last year primarily looked at work on decarbonization in the electricity sector, the third report has a wider scope that adopts a long-term perspective on how coordination with manufacturing, distribution, and other industries outside the electricity sector can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The plan for the future is to intensify the release and dissemination of information on technological options in a quantitative and objective manner with a view to developing rules and practices that will circulate these new forms of value.
Amid rapid changes in society, discontinuous innovation that goes beyond business-as-usual in existing systems will be essential if energy systems are to resolve complex societal challenges and improve people’s quality of life (QoL). This calls for the main grid systems, regional communities, consumers, and suppliers to all cooperate on putting their wisdom to work on achieving innovation.
