CS Tokyo Plugs US Power Companies Into Key Energy Show

Organizers for Power Mart and Trade Expo 2003 asked CS Tokyo for support in promoting the March 27-28, 2003 trade fair held at the Tokyo International Forum. In exchange for our support, CS Tokyo received two complimentary booths in a prime location on the show floor. CS Tokyo promoted the event and the availability of booth space on its home page, offering the space to American power companies a first-come-first-served basis. Six companies responded: Accratech, Calnetix, Capstone Turbine Corporation, General Electric, Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation, and Teledyne. Traffic at the booths was high, and exhibitors ran out of brochures and other materials before the end of the show. Two of the exhibitors noted, "Thanks to CS Tokyo's efforts, we were able to obtain maximum results with minimum effort."

Highlights

On-site Power Generation and Energy Solution Businesses Become Very Popular
Despite partial liberalization of Japan's retail electricity market (initiated on March 21, 2000), there have been very few new entrants. On the other hand, energy solution businesses, including on-site power generation and energy service companies, are enjoying success by targeting the portion of the market yet to be liberalized. Inspired by the remarkable achievements of EneServe, an independent energy service company which builds and operates diesel-based co-generation units, many electric power utilities have established their own subsidiaries to provide similar services. They even compete with each other beyond the traditional service areas of their parent utilities (a phenomenon rarely seen in the "liberalized" portion of the market). Subsidiaries include the following: MyEnergy (Tokyo Electric Power Company), Kansai Gas & Co-generation (Kansai Electric Power Company), Sea Energy (Chubu Electric Power Company), Tohoku Energy Service (Tohoku Electric Power Company), Western Japan Environment Energy (Kyushu Electric Power Company), Energia Solution and Service (Chugoku Electric Power Company) and Energy Frontier (Hokkaido Electric Power Company). These companies aim to build and operate co-generation facilities using diesel engines or micro gas turbines. Diesel engines are currently preferred by some of the users because they are more economical, however micro gas turbines will increasingly be used for environmental reasons.

Trade Events

The New Orleans Association (NOA)
The Commercial Service Japan organized the 13th NOA Conference in Sapporo on April 18-19, 2002. NOA was established in 1995 to follow up on the September 1994 U.S.-Japan Electric Power Procurement Seminar held in New Orleans and jointly organized by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Commerce (DOC). NOA Conferences are held twice a year, once in Tokyo (hosted by the U.S. Embassy) and once outside Tokyo (hosted by one of the Japanese power companies). The purpose of these conferences is to provide U.S. manufacturers and service providers with opportunities to meet with procurement officials from all 12 Japanese electric utility companies in order to explore or expand business opportunities.

The 13th NOA Conference was hosted by Hokkaido Electric Power Company, Inc. and brought together 47 representatives of U.S. firms with 37 representatives from Japan's 12 electric utilities. Nine officials of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates also participated in the conference. In addition to individual business meetings between the U.S. firms and Japanese utilities, the two-day event included a visit to Hokkaido Electric's Tomatou-Atsuma Coal-fired Power Station, a dinner reception, and a seminar by a Chubu Electric representative on the firm's recently introduced supply chain management system. (Contact: Kenji Kobayashi at the U.S. Embassy: kenji.kobayashi@N0SPAM.mail.doc.gov )

CS Japan Contacts

Commercial Attache : Stephen Jacques (Stephen.Jacques@N0SPAM.mail.doc.gov )
Commercial Specialist: Kenji Kobayashi (Kenji.Kobayashi@N0SPAM.mail.doc.gov )