Press Release
Results of “PV in HOKKAIDO Contest on Technology for Predicting Solar Energy Production”
Jun 28, 2019
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.
Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc.
Since December 20, 2018, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as, "TEPCO HD", Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Tomoaki Kobayakawa) and Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc. (Headquarters: Sapporo City, Hokkaido; President and CEO: Yutaka Fujii (hereinafter referred to as, “HEPCO”)) have been jointly sponsoring the “PV in HOKKAIDO Contest on Technology for Predicting Solar Energy Production” (hereinafter referred to as, “contest”). The objective of the contest is to unearth innovative methods and new approaches to predicting the amount of energy produced by solar power generating facilities in Hokkaido, and participants competed on the basis of not only the methods proposed, but also the accuracy of these methods (announced on December 20, 2018). We hereby announce that the winners have been selected after harsh scrutiny of the submitted proposals.
Past data on the amount of solar power actually generated and the weather conditions from 2016 to 2017 were provided by HEPCO and participants were asked to deliberate methods for predicting the amount of solar energy produced in 30-minute intervals. These methods were then used to predict the amount of energy that would be produced over a 13-month period (January 1, 2018 ~January 31, 2019) by a solar power generation facility stipulated in advance by the sponsors.
Out of approximately 70 entries submitted to the contest by domestic and overseas corporations, research institutions and students, 13 proposals stood out from the rest in terms of accuracy, the method of prediction, the practical applicability of methods for leveraging data and the potential for which these methods could be further developed. Video presentations on these 13 proposals were subjected to final judging, and eight winners were selected (See the attachment for details).
Hokkaido University Professor Hiroyuki Kita, who served as the head of the judging panel, commented that, “The academic value of this contest that allows many diverse predictive methods to be compared side-by-side is enormous. I expect that these proposals will be further developed into excellent predictive methods,” thus illustrating the overall high level of quality of this contest. The most outstanding of the submitted methods for predicting solar power energy production will be examined to see if they can be applied to real-world tasks.
Solar power is a fluctuating energy source that is subject to weather conditions so being able to accurately predict the amount of power generated is vital if the technology is going to be effectively leveraged for supplying electricity.
As power supply/demand conditions become even more complicated, both TEPCO HD and HEPCO will continue to strive to expand the use of solar power and other renewable energy sources and improve the stability of power distribution by incorporating new technologies and new knowledge obtained from external parties.
Details on the final judging and pictures can be found on the open innovation website (TEPCO CUUSOO*) https://cuusoo.com/projects/50369/challenges/result (managed by CUUSOO SYSTEM Co., Ltd.).
Attachment: PV in HOKKAIDO Contest on Technology for Predicting Solar Energy Production Results
About TEPCO
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO) is Japan's largest power company group, holding three independent business entities: TEPCO Fuel & Power, Inc., TEPCO Power Grid, Inc., and TEPCO Energy Partner, Inc.
As a group, it generates, distributes, and sells electricity and other types of energy principally to the Kanto metropolitan area, which includes Japan's two most populous cities, Tokyo and Yokohama.
The TEPCO Group’s 41,525 employees are committed to providing safe, reliable power as well as fulfilling its responsibilities to the communities of Fukushima. (As of March 31, 2018)
- TEPCO Website: https://www7.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/index-e.html
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About TEPCO CUUSOO
Open innovation website that looks to recruit technology and ideas that can contribute to solving problems faced by the TEPCO Group from corporations, entrepreneurs, universities, and research institutions.
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