
The National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations (JA Zen-Noh) and Itochu Corporation started commercial operation of their peer-to-peer (P2P) power trading service using the technology of the latter’s subsidiary TRENDE, the trading house announced on September 6, 2024.
Since 2023, Itochu has been working with JA Zen-Noh to realize “smart agricultural communities,” a smart city-like concept. As part of that, in March 2024, they launched a P2P power trading service on a trial basis in Gunma Prefecture, with JA Denki serving as a power retailer facilitating the transactions.
According to Itochu’s statement, the trial “confirmed that all participants have seen economic benefits and that the [system] is effective in facilitating ‘both economical and environmentally-friendly local production and local consumption of power.'” As such, the two companies decided to roll out the service on a wider basis.
The service aims to provide owners residential and commercial assets with expiring feed-in-tariff (FIT) with an opportunity to monetize the excess power they generate and other consumers to directly purchase power from such assets, “allowing renewable energy to be circulated in the community without being wasted.”
TRENDE became a consolidated subsidiary of Itochu Corporation when the latter increased its ownership stake in the P2P power trading platform developer in June 2023.