Shizen Connect VPP Platform

Shizen Connect Inc. is a Tokyo-based technology startup founded in October 2023, whose largest shareholder is Shizen Energy Inc. It develops its own IoT and AI for energy companies that operate virtual power plants, so that renewables, grid-scale batteries, EVs, home batteries and heat-pump water heaters can be managed as a single power plant for supply-demand balancing and market trading.

The Shizen Connect platform combines AI for optimal market trading and control, an IoT platform that controls a wide range of devices from different manufacturers, and the proprietary Shizen Box edge device. Generation-side services cover grid-scale and renewable co-located battery control, offered as SaaS or outsourced operation; demand-side services cover demand response for electricity retailers, HEMS, industrial battery control, remote meter reading and EV charging and discharging control. Users include utilities, gas companies, retailers and real estate firms such as Tokyo Gas, JERA Cross, Hokkaido Electric and TEPCO Energy Partners.

• AI market trading: forecasts demand and plans battery charge and discharge for market bids.
• Vendor-free IoT platform: controls devices from many battery, heat pump and EV equipment makers.
• Shizen Box: proprietary edge device for on-site monitoring and control.
• Grid battery control: SaaS or outsourced operation for grid-scale and renewable co-located batteries.
• Home demand response: DR and HEMS services for electricity retailers.
• EV charging control: manages EV charging and discharging as flexible resources.

Battery storage developers co-locating BESS with solar farms in Vietnam could use AI scheduling to time charging and discharging. Electricity retailers and industrial park operators could pilot demand response with heat pumps and batteries. EV fleet operators could shift charging away from peak tariffs.

Energy companies can monetise grid batteries and household devices in wholesale, balancing and capacity markets from one platform. Vendor-free integration covers home battery makers with a combined 90% market share and EcoCute water heater makers with 97%, reducing integration work. SaaS or outsourced operation options let new aggregators start trading batteries without building their own control systems.

Japan's capacity and balancing markets now admit aggregated low-voltage resources, driving demand for VPP platforms among utilities and gas companies. Southeast Asian regulators are following, with Singapore running a VPP regulatory sandbox, while Vietnam's growth in rooftop solar and battery storage points to future demand for aggregation software.

Shizen Connect was founded in October 2023 and is headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo; its largest shareholder is Shizen Energy Inc. In May 2026 it raised about 2.7 billion JPY in a Series A first close, bringing external funding to about 3.26 billion JPY and its strategic capital partners to 16, including Osaka Gas, JERA, Daikin and Mitsubishi HC Capital. Its VPP technology was registered on WIPO GREEN in February 2025.