Mitsubishi Research Institute and Hitachi Partner to Launch Advanced Power Trading Service for Extra-High-Voltage Grid-Scale-Battery Operators

TOKYO, August 27, 2026 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (TSE:3636, “MRI”) and Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, "Hitachi") signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 25 August to build a cooperative framework for delivering advanced power-trading support services tailored to grid-scale battery operators in the extra-high voltage segment, including new market entrants. By integrating MRI’s distributed-energy-resource operation-support service, MERSOL (MRI Energy Resource Solution), with Hitachi’s Power Trading System, currently under development, the companies will establish a framework to offer a combined solution: Power Trading Service (the Service)*1.

By linking MERSOL's bid-planning optimization with Power Trading System's market-trading support, the Service will provide integrated, seamless support from automated bid planning to actual market transactions. This integration makes it easier for operators to bring sophisticated trading operations—historically outsourced to aggregators*2—in-house. This will enable operators to streamline operations, capture more revenue, and easily expand across multiple battery-storage sites. Through the Service, MRI and Hitachi will help grid-scale battery businesses improve their profitability and scalability.

*1 Scheduled for launch in fiscal year 2027
*2 Aggregators: Businesses that bundle and centrally control multiple distributed-energy resources to provide services such as power adjustment and market trading on behalf of operators

Background

While renewable energy sees accelerated expansion across Japan to achieve the country’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, managing the balance of supply and demand to cope with fluctuations in power generation remains a major challenge. In this context, grid-scale batteries—which charge during periods of surplus power and discharge during shortages—are a vital resource for further integration of renewable energy.

For grid-scale battery businesses, securing profitability relies heavily on strategic trading across multiple markets and products, such as the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX)*3 and the Electric Power Reserve Exchange (EPRX)*4. Conducting these operations in-house demands highly specialized expertise, from forecasting future market prices and bid planning that maximizes revenue, to submitting plans in strict compliance with the Electricity Business Act and market regulations. While many operators—especially new entrants—currently outsource these tasks to aggregators, there is a growing demand to bring trading operations in-house to accumulate operational expertise internally, reduce outsourcing costs, and accelerate decision-making.

Against this background, MRI has leveraged its long-standing expertise in power-market analysis and policy design to develop and run the MERSOL service, which uses proprietary algorithms to generate optimal operation plans for batteries. Meanwhile, Hitachi—led by its Strategic SIB Business Unit, which drives new growth businesses—is developing Power Trading System*5. Built on Hitachi's extensive IT and OT (operational technology) expertise in the power sector, Power Trading System is designed to make complex trading workflows more efficient and advanced, ranging from market trading based on bidding plans to the submission of grid-utilization plans to the Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators, JAPAN (OCCTO)*6.

*3 JEPX: The sole market for wholesale electricity trading in Japan
*4 EPRX: A market where general electricity transmission and distribution utilities procure the balancing capacity (power) required to maintain the balance between electricity supply and demand
*5 Power Trading System features a flexible architecture that allows integration with external planning-optimization services, enabling customized service connectivity tailored to individual customer needs.
*6 OCCTO: A government-authorized organization that promotes and oversees the nationwide coordination of electricity supply and demand, as well as the wide-area operation of transmission and distribution grids

Collaboration Details and Value Proposition

Through this collaboration, MRI and Hitachi will link MERSOL and Power Trading System to build a seamless mechanism that efficiently executes the entire trading workflow—from bid planning to market trading and on-site control commands. Specifically, MERSOL will generate bidding plans based on market-price forecasts, including the supply-and-demand adjustment market. Utilizing these plans, Power Trading System will facilitate market bidding and automate the generation and submission of required plans to OCCTO based on contract*7 results, thereby streamlining operators' workflows.

By delivering these services as an integrated solution, the partnership will bring operators value in two primary ways:

1. Enhanced Profitability

The Service helps operators secure stable returns and expand revenue opportunities by executing power trading based on highly accurate market-price forecasts and optimized bidding plans. By streamlining workflows through system automation, it also smooths the transition for operators looking to manage trading internally. This shift reduces outsourcing fees, enables companies to accumulate valuable operational expertise, and accelerates internal decision-making to capitalize on market opportunities immediately. Ultimately, this drives advancements in operations and greater overall competitiveness.

2. Scaling Business Operations

A standardized system architecture makes it simple to scale operations across multiple projects without building a custom setup from scratch for each battery-storage site. Operators new to grid-scale battery business can particularly benefit from the automation and optimization of planning activities and day-to-day operations, even putting in-house trading into reach. The service makes it possible for small teams to manage operations across multiple battery storage sites, eliminates reliance on specific individuals, and ensures that knowledge is standardized rather than siloed. As a result, operators can maintain stable, seamless operations even when establishing new battery storage sites, contributing to flexible and sustainable business growth.

*7 Contract: The successful completion of a transaction when a buyer and seller agree on a price

Future Outlook

Starting in fiscal year 2027, MRI and Hitachi will establish a framework to offer the Service. Additionally, both companies will set up a collaborative framework to mutually propose and deliver their respective systems (MERSOL and Power Trading System) as standalone solutions. Through this collaboration, both partners aim to support the adoption and growth of the grid-scale battery business, contributing to realizing a sustainable, carbon-neutral society.

MRI plans to continue to update MERSOL in step with electricity-market fluctuations and regulatory changes, helping battery businesses improve profitability and long-term predictability.

Hitachi aims to expand its IT and OT integration expertise cultivated in the battery sector to seamlessly connect electricity markets with various consumers, including data centers, ultimately building the energy infrastructure that will underpin next-generation green transformation (GX).

About MERSOL (Japanese only)
https://mersol.mri.co.jp/

About Hitachi's Green Transformation Initiatives (Japanese only)
https://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/it/gx_business/?nr=260827

About Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.

Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. is one of Japan’s foremost think tanks. For over 50 years, it has provided the public and private sectors with research and consulting services in fields spanning energy, the environment, healthcare, human resources, and digital transformation. This is accompanied by policy recommendations and the real-world application of solutions. Mitsubishi Research Institute will continue to envision the future, resolve societal issues, and lead change to build a sustainable and prosperous world. For more information, please visit: www.mri.co.jp/en/

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT (Operational Technology), and products, Hitachi aims to be a global leader in continuously transforming social infrastructure through digital, contributing to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance.

Hitachi operates worldwide across four sectors—Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries—as well as a Strategic SIB Business Unit focused on new growth areas. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi creates value by combining data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges.

Revenues for FY2025 (ended March 31, 2026) totaled 10,586.7 billion yen, with 606 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 290,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at www.hitachi.com.

About Lumada

Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.
General contact:
Akihiko Sugitani
New-Business Development Center,
Energy and Sustainability Unit
Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.
Email: mersol-contact@mri.co.jp

Hitachi, Ltd.
General contact:
Nomura, Ando
Infrastructure Control Systems Division,
Digital Services Business Unit
Hitachi, Ltd.
Contact form: https://www8.hitachi.co.jp/inquiry/control/jp/main/form.jsp?UM_QNo=1