Taisuke Hatakeyama is helping us modernize grids with safe and reliable interconnections.

I am Taisuke Hatakeyma, currently part of the Operations Team of the Grid Integration at Hitachi Energy Japan. I am involved in substation projects as a solution engineer, focusing on protection, monitoring, and control systems for digital substations. My main responsibilities include engineering and commissioning coordination of protection, control, and monitoring systems for digital substations.

Hitachi Energy is involved in many substation projects as a very strong player overseas and offers cutting-edge technology, especially in equipment for digital substations designed based on the IEC61850 standard. Currently, there is a demand growing for the replacement of substation facilities in factories built during the period of high economic growth in Japan.

The opportunity to contribute to the advancement of Japan's electric power system while being exposed to cutting-edge technology keeps me inspired to be more involved in my work every day. I will continue to strive to contribute to the ever-developing electric power system as an engineer.

Since my master's research was on superconducting materials, I became interested in power systems such as DC (Direct Current) power transmission. In engineering work, I oversee compiling hardware and software related to protection, control, monitoring, negotiating with customers, and preparing technical related documents. In addition, in the commissioning coordination work, I handle equipment quality control, protective relay testing, and equipment operation testing, in cooperation with supervisors dispatched from the factory.

Through our technology, we are contributing to countries and regions by simply improving their quality of life by supplying electricity that supports the building of social infrastructure. For example, compared to conventional substations, digital substations can be expected to reduce copper cable usage by up to 80%, shorten installation time by 40%, and reduce the installation area by 60%. Therefore, it is easier to install a mobile substation.

Digital substations reduce costs and environmental impact through the simplification of substations. In addition, by utilizing data acquired from high-voltage equipment, more advanced substation monitoring and operation can be performed.