Many ideas may occur to you such as "I turn off the electricity when not in use", or "I use the bicycle not the car for neighborhood shopping", but few people would dare to quit using their refrigerator, washing machine or TV.
It is very difficult to reduce the energy quantity necessary to support our affluent life. For example, due to the explosive growth of Internet, the power consumption of domestic network equipment is estimated to increase in 2025 by 13 times over the current consumption. Therefore, it is important for each of us, as an individual in society, how to reduce wasteful spending of energy.

Throughout the world, energy demands in non-OECD ^{Note 1} countries are considerably increasing today centering on the BRICs ^{Note 2} where the economy is rapidly growing. While the advanced countries are making efforts to suppress energy consumption, it is anticipated to increase worldwide in the future.
The IEA ^{Note 3}estimates that the power demand in the world increases 2.8% every year from 2005 to 2030, reaching twice as much over 2005 in 2030. See the attached Figure. So, in addition to personal efforts of incremental energy saving for better future, it is required for every country to reduce wasteful spending of energy and to use it efficiently. The smart grid is expected to be a key player in energy saving.

To grasp and adjust the clever use of electricity, it is indispensable to actively introduce the information technology (IT). For example,

• ? A control center communicates with electrical meters in every home to get a grasp of the electricity consumption, thereby eliminating the need for patrol.
• ? Usage of electricity is grasped at all times, thereby enabling proper and individualized power supply in response to a rapid rise in demand.
• ? A composite approach combining macroscopic and microscopic views is adopted to monitor electricity demand, thereby improving the accuracy of predicting the electricity demand so as to achieve an efficient power supply.

In this manner, by making the most use of IT, energy saving can be promoted. Moreover, customers may be able to select the way of electricity usage making it adapted to one's lifestyle in the future.

Part of electricity transmitted over a transmission line is dissipated as heat. By reducing this dissipation, the utilization efficiency of electricity is said to improve drastically, and this can be realized by innovative power devices such as superconducting cables. Thus, in the field of transmission and distribution of electric power, by improving the function, performance and reliability of devices and equipment, development of technologies to cut waste and achieve energy saving is being promoted. Furthermore, various efforts aimed at realization of a low-carbon society are drawing attention, including utilization promotion of green energy, i.e., renewable electricity such as solar, wind and biomass, as well as expanding the charging facilities for next-generation vehicles.

Solar and wind power generation as green energy are expected to grow in their supply quantity.

 

Currently the U.S. is most active in smart grid implementation. In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009^{Note 4} that President Obama asked the United State Congress to pass, $60 billion (approximately 5.4 trillion yen) is set aside for projects related with green energy, and $10 billion (approximately 900 billion yen) for IT modernization of power transmission and distribution lines. In conjunction with such trends in the U.S., the smart grid is drawing attention in many countries in the world including China and India. By the way, how things are going in Japan? When we take a look at Japan, we can see that the country has a well-structured power supply system that compares favorably with other countries in the world. However, the primary energy source of Japan mainly depends on the fossil fuels such as crude oil, coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and most of them are imported from abroad. It is desirable that the supply of green energy be expanded by some technological breakthroughs.

The Furukawa Electric Group has a long history of being engaged in constructing the social infrastructures centering on power transmission and information and communications, and is provided with high capabilities in both hardware and software technologies. We are proceeding with the development of various solutions for electric power technologies, including superconducting cables that significantly reduce transmission loss, semiconductor devices and storage batteries that play an important role in stabilized supply of new energy sources, thereby making a major contribution to the building of smart grids.