ABB continues to support Japan's biomass power market with 9th automation contract

ABB, has once again partnered with TOYO Engineering Corporation in Japan to supply its advanced distributed control system (DCS) ABB Ability™ Symphony Plus to the Wakayama Gobo Biomass Power Plant, situated approximately 120 km south of Osaka.

Scheduled to be operational by 2025, this greenfield biomass power plant will generate 50 MW of renewable energy, using wood pellets and agricultural byproducts as its feedstock. The power produced will be sufficient to meet the electricity needs of up to 110,000 Japanese households annually. Enewill (formerly JAG Energy), Osaka Gas, and SMFL MIRAI Partners are collaborating on this project, with TOYO handling the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) aspects.

ABB's DCS solution will empower operators with complete visibility of operations, enabling them to make informed real-time decisions, optimise production, improve processes, and drive efficiencies. The deployment of ABB's Adaptive Execution™ project management methodology, which leverages digitalisation, will accelerate delivery schedules and facilitate faster site startup.

This latest contract adds to ABB's ongoing collaboration with TOYO, having previously integrated their automation solutions into eight other biomass facilities being constructed across Japan.

Japan has made significant strides in increasing its domestic energy supply by over four percent year-on-year. To reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and match the growing demand, the country has been actively investing in renewable energy sources, including solar power and biomass generation. In fact, Japan's renewable energy output witnessed an 11.7 percent increase in 2022.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, in its sixth Basic Energy Plan, has set a target of achieving 8 GW of installed biomass capacity in the country by 2030, which would account for five percent of the projected power demand. Brandon Spencer, President of ABB Energy Industries, highlights that the nine projects ABB is involved in will collectively generate 500 MW of capacity, achieving over six percent of the government's target and providing energy to more than one million households.

The biomass market in Japan is currently the world's fifth-largest and is expected to grow by 5.4 percent annually until 2025 and 3.7 percent per year in the following decade. With its expertise in delivering process control systems and a proven track record on other TOYO projects, ABB is a trusted leader in Japan's power generation market, making it the partner of choice for this ambitious initiative.