Japan’s Nippon Gas grabs stake in Australian energy services company

Japan energy giant Nippon Gas Co has bought a 16 per cent stake in Australian energy management company COzero Holdings as Japan looks to manage looming energy shortages.

The purchase was announced as Japan shut down the last operating nuclear power station for a safety review. It means that all 50 plants are now offline following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and none are expected to return to service before 2014. Even then, there is significant public opposition, despite support from the Japanese government.

Nippon Gas said it thought COzero’s smart energy management technologies will be successful in Australia and may directly translate to the Japanese market and other markets around the world.

Nippon Gas said the nuclear shut-downs had resulted in substantially increased electricity and gas prices for residential and commercial customers. It now expected full deregulation of the Japanese electricity sector to take place by 2016, with the gas sector to follow simultaneously or shortly after.

It says this situation, and the country’s pressing need to mitigate energy usage, may provide many opportunities for Australian companies with innovative energy management products and services.

COzero is a six-year-old company that topped BRW’s Fast 100 list in 2011. It started out as an emissions trading company, but has since focused on energy management. It has three flagship energy management products that monitor and control energy use, can trade energy contracts, and can create and sell energy efficiency certificates.

“We welcome this investment from one of Japan’s leading energy retailers and expect this partnership to help COzero successfully conclude the roll out of various new energy management technologies and systems – which we believe are world-leading,” COzero CEO and founder Nicholas Armstrong said in a statement.

“This partnership will also give us access to Nippon’s expertise and Japanese technologies which may have value in the Australian market,” said Nicholas Armstrong.