Nihonbashi Smart City, Central Tokyo's First “Smart City”
Helping Bolster Tokyo's International Competitiveness and Creating an Environment Friendly City Resilient to Disasters
Japan's First Smart City in an Area With Existing Office Buildings, Retail Properties and Other Facilities
Using High-Efficiency Gas-fired Generator to Operate a Power and Heat Supply Business
(Promises to Reduce Energy Use and CO2 Emissions by Approx. 30% in the Entire Area)

April 8, 2013
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. today announced plans to introduce a large, high-efficiency gas-fired power generator in the “Nihonbashi Muromachi 3-chome City Revitalization Plan” (tentative name) under development in Muromachi 3-chome, Nihonbashi, Tokyo. This gas cogeneration system will be used to operate an area power and heat supply business, with supplies scheduled to commence in 2019. This business will supply electricity and heat to Mitsui Fudosan owned and managed facilities inside and outside the redevelopment zone, as well as other existing office buildings, retail properties and other facilities. This business involving the supply of electricity using an independent distributed power source to an existing zone in central Tokyo is the first such example in Japan. Besides upgrading the existing city area, this new undertaking will dramatically improve the city's ability to cope with natural disasters. This energy supply business is being investigated together with TOKYO GAS Co., Ltd.

(Business Overview)

• The planned electricity supply business is classified under Japanese law as a specified electricity business, which supplies electricity with self-operated generators and transmission lines to a specified service area. An August 2011 legislative amendment relaxed the minimum self-supply ratio condition from 100% to 50%, enabling the parallel usage of grid power from Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (TEPCO) and other utilities.
• The heat supply business will produce hot water, cold water and steam effectively using waste heat from power generation for use in air-conditioning and other systems in existing buildings outside the redevelopment zone.
• With a power supply capacity of approximately 50 MW, the business will be able to supply electricity and heat to a total building floor area, including the existing zone, of approximately 1 million m2. Moving forward, Mitsui Fudosan will meet with building owners and others in the service area to discuss supply contracts.
• A key feature of this business is Mitsui Fudosan can intelligently select electricity either from the grid or power it generates during the day and use only grid power at night. Furthermore, for power generation, Mitsui Fudosan will use moderate pressure gas lines certified for emergency power generation that continued to supply gas even after the Great East Japan Earthquake. This means it is possible to supply electricity needed for the building business continuity plans (BCPs) with electricity generated from gas even when grid supply stops in an emergency.
• Moreover, the business will preferentially supply mainly existing buildings outside the redevelopment zone heat from state-of-the-art high-efficiency heat source equipment that is generated in an environmentally friendly way. It will also promote the use of all the waste heat from power generation and maximizing energy use in existing zones. In these ways, the business will help make the city more environmentally friendly in terms of energy savings and CO2 reductions within the redevelopment zone and neighboring areas.
  (Mitsui Fudosan has calculated that energy and CO2 should be reduced by approximately 30% in the area as a whole.)

This undertaking will upgrade the entire area, including existing zones, and will help realize the low-carbon city creation concept being promoted by the Japanese government and the Tokyo metropolitan government. It will also enhance the city's disaster preparedness and elevate Tokyo's international competitiveness. Mitsui Fudosan will continue to promote the creation of smart cities and help make cities more resilient to disasters through energy creation, energy conservation, energy storage and energy management. Mitsui Fudosan will also work to enhance other areas of Tokyo in the same way.

Overview of “Nihonbashi Muromachi 3-chome City Revitalization Plan” (tentative name)

Property name	“Nihonbashi Muromachi 3-chome City Revitalization Plan”
Location	(A Zone) Muromachi 3-chome, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo (B Zone) Honkokucho 4-chome, Nihonbashi
Site area	(A Zone) approx. 11,500m2 (B Zone) approx. m2
Gross floor area	Approx. 165,700m2
Usage	(A Zone) Offices, stores, parking (B Zone) Public facilities, parking
Schedule	2015 Start of demolition 2019 Completion of entire redevelopment

Map

System Diagram

Normal Operations

Click to enlarge

Emergency

Back to index of News Releases in 2013