Construction of 100 smart cities is a promise made by the Narendra Modi Government soon after it assumed office. The fine print of Modi’s dream project is yet to come, but the government can learn a lesson or two from the Yokohoma smart community in Japan that strives to create a town which “supports life and culture with science technology while learning from and utilising nature.”

The Yokohoma smart community is a joint product of about 87 companies, five research participants and six advisors who work for developing technologies. With the latest technologies in use, the project claims that it will help saving at least 50 per cent of power compared to the regular use. “We have enabled autonomous power distribution between power grid and battery storage of solar energy.

“This is a platform of distributed power generation network which contributes to the electrical grid by levelling electricity demand,” explains a spokesperson of Murata Manufacturing Ltd, a technology service provider in the project. The energy management system in smart homes helps grid management by levelling demand, contributes to introduction of distributed power generation and establishes a robust community against disasters by combining autonomous operation during electricity outage and a network for common use of electricity.

Model-based development, used in the system, provides a new environment for development of electric power resources which is highly efficient and has good traceability in the field of “energy system development” in which a solar battery, storage battery, and grid power, etc, are integrated as a system.

The purpose of Yokohoma smart community include efficient use of natural energy, countermeasures to power outage and reduction of burden on power lines, information sharing between homes on energy usage, etc, that can coexist with nature and evolving projects that can be sustained for 100 years.

(The writer was in Yokohama at the invitation of Murata Manufacturing Company Ltd)

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