First-time Seminar Advances US-Japan Cooperation on Smart Grid
Development and Deployment
GridWise® Alliance Signs MOU with Japan Smart Community Alliance
Washington, DC – April 16, 2010 – Hosting a seminar bringing together government and private sector
leaders from the U.S. and Japan, the GridWise Alliance, the preeminent smart grid organization in the
United States, today announced the initiation of a close working relationship between the U.S. and Japan
to develop and deploy the smart grid in each nation.
“By sharing knowledge and ideas on how each of our nations and our companies are moving forward on
smart grid, we can make better decisions and learn from each other,” said Guido Bartels, GridWise
Alliance Chair. “As the world has become more inter-connected electronically, we are beginning to apply
some of those same technologies to our respective electric grids. Working together with public and
private organizations in Japan, we can assist each other on standards and interoperability,” added
Bartels.
Also participating in the US-Japan Smart Grid Seminar, co-hosted by the GridWise Alliance, the New
Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Japan Smart Community
Alliance, are Katherine Hamilton, President, GridWise Alliance; Kazuaki Koizawa, Secretary General,
Japan Smart Community Alliance; Norihiko Ishiguro, Director-General, Commerce and Information Policy
Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan; Keisuke Saito, Director-General, Energy
Conservation and Renewable Energy Department, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, Japan;
Patricia Hoffman, Acting Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Electricity Reliability, US
Department of Energy; Bruce Walker, Vice President of Asset Strategy and Policy, National Grid, and
Board Member, GridWise Alliance.
At the conclusion of the seminar, the GridWise Alliance and Japan Smart Community Alliance signed a
Memorandum of Understanding. “We are thrilled to sign this MOU with our counterparts from Japan,” said
Hamilton. “With nearly 300 utilities, energy-related manufacturers, universities and automobile companies
and an array of other industries represented, the recently launched Japan Smart Community Alliance is
both a mirror of the GridWise Alliance and a perfect partner for us,” added Hamilton.
“Smart grid technology and the smart community have shown a strong potential to grow by not only
drawing interest from developed countries like the United States, but also emerging countries such as
China and India,” said Kazuaki Koizawa, Secretary General of the Japan Smart Community Alliance. “I
am convinced it is important for the United States, the world leader in the technology of this field while
being proficient in information communication technology, and Japan, which has developed grid
technologies, to continue working together to cultivate new markets and facilitate standardization,” added
Koizawa.,
Striving to contribute to the implementation of a smart grid, the Japan Smart Community Alliance was
officially established in April 2010. It was created as an organization for the public and private sectors to
collaboratively address common issues. In all, 287 entities from various sectors -- electric power, gas,
automobiles, electrical equipment, information communication as well as municipalities and universities -have joined the Alliance.