It will install the system — featuring sodium sulphur batteries supplied by Nagoya-based NGK Insulators — in Buzen, Fukuoka prefecture.
It did not reveal the financial terms of the plan.
The project — part of efforts by regional utility Kyushu Electric Power to regulate the integration of renewables-generated electricity into the grid — will be operational by March 2016.
Last autumn, Kyushu Electric led a number of utilities throughout Japan in temporarily suspending grid-access applications from solar and wind developers, on claims that an influx of new PV capacity since the July 2012 introduction of the nation’s feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme for renewable energy had destabilised its grid infrastructure.
