London-based Moixa Technology Ltd (www.moixa.com) has announced that its GridShare platform, which manages and optimises home energy storage systems, will be marketed in Japan by Itochu Corporation.

The latter will also invest £5 million in Moixa to help fund its international expansion.

By the end of March, Itochu will have sold over 6,000 ‘Smart Star’ home battery systems through its distribution network in Japan. It will install GridShare as standard on its products by the summer of 2018.

Simon Daniel, CEO of Moixa, said: “Itochu is a major player in the global battery market; this partnership provides a real opportunity for us to expand our business in Japan and provide GridShare technology to many global battery companies.

“GridShare optimises the performance of home batteries by learning patterns of household energy use and solar generation, and adjusting to local weather and energy price signals.

"It can also help customers make money by using their spare battery capacity to help utilities and electricity networks balance supply and demand.”

Japan had over 125,000 energy storage systems in 2016, and the number is expected to exceed 500,000 in 2020; the country also has the world’s third-largest fleet of electric vehicles.

GridShare optimises the performance of batteries; it can also manage large fleets of devices to help support solar generation, control vehicle charging and deliver services to the electricity grid.

Koji Hasegawa at Itochu said: “Moixa has pioneered battery management, and we are proud to be investing and working together to target the rapidly growing energy storage market in Japan.

“Moixa’s GridShare will help our customers get more value from their home batteries.”