What you must know about Japan's Smart Mansion Assessment System for apartment buildings

In August 2013, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry (METI) announced the launch of a Smart Mansion Assessment System for multi-unit residential (MURB) buildings. “Smart Mansions” are apartment buildings that have an integrated building energy management system (BEMS) capable of “operating the building as a whole.”

The nascent rating system will evaluate the energy efficiency of the apartment buildings to provide a useful reference for apartment buyers or tenants to make decisions among different apartment options. There are several key data points that the system uses to evaluate the apartment buildings’ efficiency, such as building energy consumption data, demand response functionality, remote control functionality, renewable energy generation, and energy storage applications.

To implement this plan, Sustainable Open Innovation Initiative (SII) will select companies to become Mansion Energy Management Systems (MEMS) aggregators, which will introduce MEMS into apartment buildings. So far, large Japanese companies, like ORIX Electric Power Corporation and Koyo Electronics Industries, have already been appointed as MEMS aggregators.

METI’s plan to build the Smart Mansion Assessment System could not have come at a better time. Recently, Japan shut down its last operational nuclear reactor for “routine maintenance;” this was one of 50 reactors brought offline in the country in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

The loss of nuclear generation must be offset by gas-fired generation – at a significant cost premium. Thus, METI’s SMAS initiative is expected to be rolled out quickly, given that this project provides subsidies on the purchase for equipment, which can not only reduce apartment energy consumption, but also demand.

Though the total subsidy amount of this project was not disclosed in the press release, this subsidy will kick off the initial adoption on MEMS applications in many apartment buildings. Once these buildings, as early adopters, have been equipped with MEMS, they will benefit from their high energy efficiency by becoming more popular choices among apartment buyers or tenants.

Therefore, MEMS has the potential to be widely applied in Japan. Given the current energy supply crunch in Japan, clients should reach out to the MEMS aggregators for product integration opportunities, given that these named companies, are not able to provide all the hardware and software required for a MEMS implementation.