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News Letter

No.31
JGA Newsletter
Headline
JGA Announces New Board of Directors

At the JGA General Meeting and the Council held on June 13, 2016, Tsuyoshi Okamoto, Chairman of Tokyo Gas, was elected to serve as Chairman of JGA after Hiroshi Ozaki. Also, Takashi Saeki (Senior Advisor, Toho Gas Co., Ltd.) was retired as Vice Chairman, while Takehiro Honjo (President, Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.), Koichi Yasui (Chairman, Toho Gas Co., Ltd.) and Matsuhiko Hataba (Senior Managing Director of JGA) were appointed as Vice Chairman. The new Board of Directors is as follows.

Chairman:
Tsuyoshi Okamoto (Chairman, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.)

Vice Chairmen:
Takehiro Honjo (President, Osaka Gas Co., Ltd.)
Koichi Yasui (Chairman, Toho Gas Co., Ltd.)
Yuji Tanaka (Chairman, Saibu Gas Co., Ltd.)

Vice Chairman and Senior Managing Director:
Matsuhiko Hataba

Managing Directors:
Shinichi Tada
Mr. Tsuyoshi Okamoto, Chairman
Mr. Tsuyoshi Okamoto, Chairman



JGA News
Kumamoto Earthquake and Recovery Works of the City Gas Industry

Restoration team composed of personnel from gas utilities nationwide
Restoration team composed of personnel from gas utilities nationwide

With the Kumamoto earthquake occurred on April 16, 2016, Japanese city gas industry was forced to suspend supply to approximately 105,000 customers because of huge damage on city gas supply pipes. The JGA set up an emergency headquarters right after the earthquake struck, dispatched advance teams, collected information and established a support system.

For the recovery works of Saibu Gas, the city gas utility supplying in the affected area, Japanese gas utilities worked together earnestly for the rapid restoration of the city gas supply. The JGA restoration teams included personnel 2,676 workers from 22 city gas utilities were engaged in the recovery works such as damaged gas pipe repair, valve opening and closing, emergency city gas supply. As a result of devoted work, the city gas supply was restored in 15 days after the earthquake.



City Gas Symposium 2016

On June 1, the JGA hosted the City Gas Symposium 2016 in Tokyo. This symposium is held every year in order for city gas utilities and related parties to share information through presentations on the latest trends in the city gas industry and cutting-edge technological developments. As Japan moves toward full liberalization of its gas and electricity retail markets, the city gas industry is going through a major transitional period; it needs to adapt to changes in the industry environment, create new value, and further improve safety and convenience.

The symposium included 29 presentations, a panel discussion (Defensive measures for huge earthquake - the forefront of earthquake disaster prevention and risk management -), and an exhibition of 80 posters including the JGA's 2 technology grand prizes and 12 technology award winners. It was attended by a total of 1,700 people from city gas utilities, supporting members, and so forth.

The main program was opened with the keynote speech titled "The realization of high-quality life in the full-liberalized energy market". In this keynote speech, actions by existing city gas utilities taking advantage of the experiences of supplying city gas for long years have been introduced as countermeasures for the liberalized city gas market. After the keynote speech, lectures of following three categories attracted a lot of participants. The first category is about new products such as a battery-powered gas leak alarm and the Xair 2, a gas heat pump air-conditioner. The second category is "Smart Energy" including a residential power interchange system and a demand response system. The third category is residential fuel cell and gas co-generation represented by High efficiency SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) and commercial-use SOFC.

In the poster session, JGA carried out a new attempt of electing the top three posters determined by a vote of the participants. Among 80 posters, the poster submitted from Tokyo Gas titled "the development of gas automatic meter reading system utilizing the electric-power smart meter system" won the Best Poster Prize.


City Gas Sales in FY2015 (April 1, 2015 - March 31, 2016)

FY 2015 domestic city gas sales (by 206 city gas utilities) totaled 36,462 million m3 (41.8605 MJ/m3), down by 1.7% from the previous fiscal year. The total sales volume decreased for the first time in six years while it is the third largest sales volume in the history.

By sector:
- Residential sector gas sales decreased by 3.5% to 9,241 million m3. The residential sector sales reflect weaker demand for heating and hot water supply as the temperature in winter season was higher than that of last year (down for the first time in two years).

- Commercial sector gas sales decreased by 1.9% to 4,232 million m3. The commercial sector sales reflect weaker demand for heating because the average temperature in winter season was higher than that of last year (down for the third consecutive year).

- Industrial sector gas sales decreased by 0.7% to 20,113 million m3. The sales decreased with lower operating rates at customer facilities (down for the first time in six years).

- Miscellaneous sector gas sales (hospitals, public facilities, etc.) decreased by 2.5% to 2,873 million m3 (down for the second consecutive year).

By region:
- The changes in annual gas sales from the previous fiscal year by region were as follows: +4.2% in Hokkaido, +1.1% in Tohoku, -1.3% in Kanto-Koshinetsu, -2.6% in Chubu-Hokuriku, -3.0% in Kinki, -1.0% in Chugoku, +4.5% in Shikoku, and -2.7% in Kyushu-Okinawa.



Information:
>>> Gas Facts in Japan 2015



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The Japan Gas Association
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