OMRON and Waseda University begin R&D to build the foundations for factory energy management systems that will help solve the energy issues faced by the manufacturing industry

• July 20, 2023

OMRON Corporation (Headquarters: Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto; President and CEO: Junta Tsujinaga; hereinafter, "OMRON") and Waseda University (University Administration Offices: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President: Aiji Tanaka; hereinafter, "Waseda") will engage in research and development (hereinafter referred to as “this project”) to build the foundations for factory energy management systems that will contribute to the solution of the energy issues faced by the manufacturing industry. On June 30, 2023, this project (Research and Development Representative: Yoshiharu Amano, Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda) was selected for one of the "construction of a smart energy management system" issue in Phase 3 of the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) led by the Cabinet Office. The planned period of the research and development is from FY2023 to FY2027.

The use of renewable energy and other efforts toward carbon neutrality are advancing around the world for the creation of a sustainable society. In Japan, the Japanese government announced in October 2020 that it would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and there are demands for efforts for the decarbonization of society as a whole. To realize decarbonization throughout society, it will be necessary to have individual efforts at the level of each company, such as the in-house generation of electricity using renewable energy and improvements in the efficiency of energy resource utilization, and it will also be necessary to go beyond those individual efforts and work on optimal energy management to enable the larger society to utilize energy resources. However, in the manufacturing industry, where energy consumption is high, there has been no standardization for the use of the energy management systems used in factories and other facilities, or of the data formats and communication standards related to electricity. As a result, the interfaces and rules necessary for the transfer of energy resource information have not been prepared. This lack of standardization creates a barrier to linking companies to enable them to work together toward the overall optimization of energy beyond the boundaries of each company. Against this backdrop, there is a need for the standardization of information data such as data related to the electricity generation capacity from solar panels and other renewable energy, and data related to the storage capacity of industrial storage batteries, and there is a need for the preparation of systems to coordinate control at the regional level.

To address these issues, we will work to build a foundation for a new factory energy management system that utilizes the sensing, data analysis, control technology and management know-how that OMRON possesses concerning the visualization and management of energy-related data in a factory production site. OMRON’s contributions will be combined with Waseda's technology for energy system optimization using an industrial open network for control systems. Specifically, OMRON will continue the design and demonstration of energy management systems at its factories.At Waseda, the Research Institute for Power and Energy Systems of the Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society (headed by Yoshiharu Amano) will take the lead in the optimization and verification of specifications for common models that can be introduced at various companies. By combining the knowledge within industry and academia, OMRON and Waseda will build the foundations for a factory energy management system for Japan that can be implemented in society to strengthen the international competitiveness of the energy solutions business and contribute to decarbonization.

Overview of the joint research and development

<Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP)>
SIP is a project led by the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Cabinet Office. It was created to realize science, technology and innovation through management that transcends the boundaries of government ministries and traditional fields. It addresses social issues that are truly necessary for the people of Japan and issues where it will be possible to lead the world and contribute to the revitalization of the Japanese economy. There were 11 issues addressed from FY2014 to FY2018 as Phase 1 and there were 12 issues addressed from FY2018 to FY2022 as Phase 2. There will be 14 issues addressed as Phase 3 during the five years from FY2023 to FY2027 and of those 14 issues, this joint research and development was adopted as a proposal for issue 6, which is the "construction of a smart energy management system."

Reference: Cabinet Office website
　2021 pamphlet for SIP (Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program)
　https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/panhu/sip_english/p2-3.pdf

<About OMRON Corporation>
OMRON Corporation is a leading company in automation with its proprietary "Sensing & Control + Think" technology at its core. It develops business in a wide range of areas, including control components, healthcare, social systems and electronic components. OMRON was founded in 1933 and currently employs approximately 30,000 people worldwide. It provides products and services in approximately 120 countries and regions. For more information, visit https://www.omron.com/global/en

<About the Research Institute for Power and Energy Systems at the Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society Research, Waseda University>
This Institute was established within the Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society in Waseda University. It is conducting research on energy management systems and other technologies for complex networked energy systems to enable sustainable energy use. It is also developing various sensing systems and technologies related to smart manufacturing using digital two-way communication in industrial control systems. It will contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society by developing design methodology for artificial systems that are compatible with humans and can become the foundation of a smart society. For more information, visit the following site.
Director: Yoshiharu Amano, Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University https://www.waseda.jp/inst/across/en/institutes/amano