Secrets of a smart city

As Singapore pushes ahead with aspirations of having intelligent systems monitor everything from traffic to air quality, Janice Tai visits the futuristic city of Kitakyushu and the Japan Robot Week 2014 exhibition in Tokyo to see how the Japanese do it.

THE ELDERLY: A bathroom beside the bed

With a population that is the world's oldest, Japan is tapping its expertise in robots to provide nursing and social care.

At the Japan Robot Week 2014 exhibition in Tokyo two weeks ago, more than 140 firms showed off their latest creations, many of which were designed to facilitate care for the elderly or infirm.

"The ageing society is a big issue for this country as in the future there may be too few facilities and staff to care for those who need it," said a spokesman for the exhibition organiser.

Toto, Japan's largest toilet-maker, showcased a toilet that can be installed beside a bed at home or in a nursing home.

This means the elderly need not walk to the bathroom. Diapers are not needed and caregivers need not be woken up at night to assist the seniors to use the toilet.

The new innovation works like a conventional flush toilet, except that it has a special pump unit to crush waste and toilet paper so that smaller hoses can be used for drainage. The small diameter of the hoses allows for the toilet to be installed by the bed.

The toilet, which picked up the Excellent Robot Award at the exhibition, costs US$5,000 (S$6,400). Some 500 sets have already been sold since its launch last month.

In Singapore, where the population is also fast greying, efforts have also been made to help the seniors use toilets more safely.

About 30,000 households have benefited from a Housing Board programme to install elder-friendly fittings such as grab bars and ramps in bathrooms, as of July, said an HDB spokesman.

Another robot at the exhibition is Nao, a two-legged humanoid robot which can engage in human conversation.

Researchers from the Nanyang Technological University bought Nao a few years ago and is working with psychologists from the Institute of Mental Health to study whether a robot can help children with autism learn to be more social.

TRANSPORT: Running on hydrogen

The world's first hydrogen fuel- cell car will go on sale later this year for seven million yen (S$80,000).

Operators of the Kitakyushu Hydrogen Station, which works closely with Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, told The Straits Times that production of the vehicle is ahead of schedule. It will be introduced by the end of this year, they said.

Even as Singapore is developing a road map to assess how electric vehicles can be adopted in future, Japan is exploring the next frontier - the fuel-cell option.

Unlike electric vehicles that run on energy stored in batteries, fuel-cell cars make the electricity needed for power on board by passing hydrogen gas through a stack of membranes and plates.

The result is a "zero-emission" vehicle, as only water and heat are produced from the process.

Drivers can usually travel farther with fuel-cell vehicles than with rechargeable cars. The Toyota model is able to go 700km on a single charge, whereas rechargeable units run for about 160km.

But at seven million yen, it is about three times the price of a petrol or rechargeable car.

To increase the appeal of hydrogen fuel-cell cars, the Japanese government is offering two million yen in subsidies for each unit.

There are now 30 hydrogen refuelling stations in Japan, and the plan is to have 1,000 by next year.

Hydrogen fuel-cell cars form just one part of an ambitious Hydrogen Town plan that was launched in 2011 in the southern city of Kitakyushu.

The hydrogen station there also pipes the gas to businesses, public facilities and homes, which are equipped with fuel cells to convert it to electricity.

HOMES: Meters help track power 

It was a sweltering afternoon and Ms Yuko Tanaka was about to throw another bundle of laundry into the washing machine.

She glanced at the smart meter installed in her home and gasped. Electricity prices had soared to 30 yen or S$0.35 per kilowatt hour, up from the usual 8 yen.

So she closed the lid of the washing machine and took her two daughters, aged five and nine, to the nearby air-conditioned mall to cool off instead.

Ms Tanaka is a resident of Kitakyushu, a city in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan. The city was chosen by the government to be a test-bed for a "Smart Community" project two years ago.

The project uses cutting-edge technology to tap clean power sources such as hydrogen, wind and solar energy.

As the energy supplied from such renewable sources can be unpredictable, a Community Energy Management System was set up.

The system uses a "dynamic pricing" model - the first in the world - and has managed to modify electricity usage patterns to ensure there is enough electricity to meet demand. This has cut electricity consumption in the district by 9 per cent to 13 per cent.

Electricity prices fluctuate at different times of the day according to demand that changes with factors such as the weather.

For example, electricity prices can rise up to 150 yen per kwh during the afternoon peak period when the temperature is above 30 deg C and air-conditioning systems everywhere are running at full blast. The steep prices discourage people from using electricity during such periods and demand tends to fall subsequently.

Conversely, electricity prices can go as low as 7 yen per kwh during off-peak hours in the morning or night. Electricity readings and prices are updated half hourly on smart meters and household monitors installed in 300 households and businesses in the city.

"My daughter began to develop the habit of turning off appliances when they are not needed and we also set the air-conditioner temperature higher," said Ms Tanaka, who is in her 30s and the founder of an aromatherapy school.

This smart grid system, which links and feeds live energy data used by households and businesses as well as the energy supplied by renewable power sources to a nearby power station, is estimated to cost 12 billion yen.

There are plans to extend the project to all of Kitakyushu, which has a million people, after this experiment ends next year.

Singapore is moving in a similar direction. Utility consumption data is provided to households and businesses to encourage them to cut usage.

In the next few years, SP Services (SPS) plans to include in the monthly utility bill comparisons of one's electricity, gas and water usage with that of one's neighbours in similar housing types, instead of just comparing with the national average.

As of August, SPS has installed 26,000 smart meters in businesses that use large amounts of electricity. Usage data is updated every half an hour.

This article was first published on November 3, 2014.
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