TOKYO, April 24, 2013 – Rakuten Inc. (JASDAQ: 4755) today announced it has reached an agreement on a business tie-up with San-Ai Oil Company, Ltd. and Global Engineering, Inc. with the aim of actively participating in Demand Response business1, one part of electric power system reform, in collaboration with both companies.
In March 2012, San-Ai Oil and Global Engineering were selected for the Business Synergy Proposal public appeal by the Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and are gathering businesses in the Kanto region. Under the “Smart Cut Plan” proposed by the two companies, 47,000 kW of peak electricity reduction was achieved during the last fiscal year in cooperation with corporate customers. The two companies’ contracted corporate customers received “negawatt” incentive payments equivalent to the amount of reduced electricity2 in compensation. In order to further expand the number of contracts and maximize the results of peak demand reduction, San-Ai Oil and Global Engineering in collaboration with Rakuten will propose a negawatt solution for contracted establishments of Rakuten Travel, Rakuten’s subsidiary. Through this, Rakuten Travel contracted establishments will receive negawatt incentives, with the benefit of being able to offset part of the recent electricity price increases.
Rakuten has been focusing part of its business development ambitions on renewable energy, with the launch of Rakuten Solar, solar power generation system sales site for home use in July last year, and the initiation of its Fukushima Pilot Project this spring to help companies conserve electricity by Demand Response and promote the spread of solar power generation systems3. Through this current initiative, Rakuten intends to actively participate in electric power system reform through the business foundation of the Rakuten Group to peak electricity reduction in the TEPCO region.
Furthermore, by returning part of the proceeds to Fukushima Prefecture in the same way as the Fukushima Pilot Project, we hope to continue to contribute to Fukushima’s reconstruction support, and aim to build a positive economic cycle.
1. When there are tight supply and demand of electricity, reduction of peak electric power through client-side efforts to curb power consumption.
2. Incentive paid to customers by considering the amount of the power savings made by customers in terms of power generation.
3. https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2013/0218_01.html