Astmax agreed to sell the planned 42MW/171MWh Komoro City Shigenoko Power Storage Station in Nagano Prefecture to Hulic, the company announced on July 17, 2026. The project is expected to be transferred on July 24, 2026.
According to the statement, the grid-scale storage facility will be built on a 5,286m2 site and use lithium-ion batteries. Once operational, the asset will be aggregated by Astmax. TESS Engineering said separately that it will handle engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) under an approximately 6 billion yen contract.
While Astmax said the project would begin operation in December 2027, the EPC contractor indicated it would be completed in March 2028. The discrepancy could be due to a trial operation period.
The sale price was not disclosed, but Astmax said it expected to book a 650 million yen operating profit associated with the deal in Q2 FY2026. It added that Hulic was selected from multiple potential buyers based on both the terms and a mid- to long-term partnership between the groups, referring to a capital and business alliance under which Hulic Property Solutions took an 18.04% stake in the seller in 2025.
At the time the alliance was formed, Astmax allocated the approximately 154 million yen in net proceeds from the transaction toward an investment of up to 500 million yen in Komoro Chikudensho LLC, the project’s special purpose company.
Separately from the Komoro project, Astmax also holds a 3.02% stake in the 50MW/100MWh Shinkawa Grid-Scale Power Storage Plant in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, which was commissioned in November 2025.
Hulic entered grid-scale battery storage in 2025, reportedly planning to invest 100 billion yen in the sector by 2034. It commissioned the 2MW/8MWh Narita City Komaino Power Storage Station and Hamamatsu City Mikkabicho Power Storage Station in 2025 and, together with ElectroRoute Japan, was awarded a subsidy under the FY2025 Tokyo grid-scale BESS support scheme for an extra-high-voltage project in Ichikai Town, Tochigi Prefecture.
