Tomoni Point power station

Part of the Global Gas Plant Tracker, a Global Energy Monitor and Center for Media and Democracy project.

Tomoni Point power station is a 600-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant, currently under construction in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Tomoni Point will be the world’s first autonomous combined cycle power plant.

Location

The map below shows the approximate location of the power station in Takasago-shi, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.

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Background

After Tomoni Point has been commissioned, which is expected in 2020, it will initially rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to provide operational recommendations. According to Todd Brezler, vice president of marketing at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS), these recommendations will require some degree of operator approval. “Once the AI has acquired enough data and machine learning," said Brezler, "the plant will operate autonomously, plan its own maintenance schedule and maintenance activities, order its own maintenance parts and service schedule, and become increasingly capable of self-healing.”

It is unclear when the plant will begin fully autonomous operations. Brezler noted that MHPS plans to run the verification test for a minimum of 8,000 hours, as it does with all MHPS gas turbine technology validations. One reason is to ensure enough digital data is collected to augment autonomous operation. “Instead of teaching AI to play chess based on analysis of thousands of chess matches, we teach the AI to ‘talk power plant,'" Brezler explains. “AI will incorporate other data like weather patterns, market level pricing, and electricity demand to schedule generation and dispatch power.”

Project Details

• Sponsor: Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems
• Parent company: Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems
• Location: Takasago-shi, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
• Coordinates: 34.7661, 134.7906 (approximate)
• Gross capacity (under construction): 600 MW
  • Combined-cycle unit: 600 MW (to start 2020)