NAGOYA, July 3 (Kyodo) — Toyota Motor Corp. began monitoring electricity usage and power generation at its plants in an integrated manner on Monday to make more efficient use of energy and conserve power, company officials said Tuesday.
With the new system, workers are now able to monitor real-time and projected power use in line graphs as well as the state of power generators at the company's plants, the officials said. The system is designed to activate an alarm when power usage approaches a preset conservation target, they added.
On Tuesday, the major automaker also announced the installation at six of its plants in Aichi Prefecture of eight energy-efficient "cogeneration" power units using utility supplied gas and plans to start operating them in stages from July 27.
With the latest addition, Toyota's self-generated power capacity will reach around 180,000 kilowatts, about 30 percent of the automaker's electricity use.
Toyota will have a total of 27 cogeneration systems, which generate both power and heat, at its plants when the eight new generators come into use.