Using cold storage to lower energy prices in Japan

This summer has sent both temperatures and electricity prices soaring. One Japanese startup, however, has found a way to use industrial cold storage to reduce our energy bills. Today we sit down with Takehito Nishiyama, the CEO Greenphard Energy, and we talk about what it takes for startups to meaningfully compete in Japan's energy markets, how hardware startups can avoid the scalability trap, and how to sell to large Japanese industrials. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why making money from demand response is hard How industrial cooling costs can be reduced by 40% How to start a startup from within another startup Developing a GTM to target Japanese industrial companies A unique electricity arbitrage opportunity How hardware startups can escape the scalability trap How to onboard Japanese industrial clients The future of Japanese energy startups Is the Japanese education system really that conservative? Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Greenphard Energy Connect with Takehito on LinkedIn Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, Straight talk from Japan's most innovative founders and VCs. I'm Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me. Good lord, it is hot outside! Of course, maybe you see things differently. I have no idea where you are or even when you are listening to this episode of Disrupting Japan, but here in Tokyo in August of 2026, it is hot. Well, today we're going to sit down with Takehito Nishiyama, founder of Greenphard Energy, a startup that's working to help keep us cool. Well, not so much keep us cool, but keep our food cool. You see, Greenphard works with refrigerated warehouses to significantly cut their electricity costs and to help them actually earn money from their electricity use. Now, in this episode, we talk about demand response, or DR. Now, we don't define it during the interview, but the idea is pretty simple. When electricity demand gets so high that it threatens to destabilize the grid, power companies will pay heavy electricity users to cut back for a while. And strategic use of demand response is a big part of Greenphard's offering. Takehito and I talk about how startups can escape the scalability trap that plagues so many industrial startups, how to start a startup from within another startup, and just why innovation is so slow to come to the energy sector in Japan. But you know, Takehito tells that story much better than I can. So, let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, we're sitting down with Takehito Nishiyama of Greenphard Energy, who's helping reduce customers' electricity bills and balance grid demand. So, thanks for sitting down with us. Takehito: Thank you. Tim: In the intro, I gave a really brief description of what you guys do, but I'm sure you can explain it much better than I can. Takehito: Greenphard provides electricity solutions for mainly a refrigerator or air conditioner user. And also we provide our product for electricity producer side as well. We are IoT and physical AI provider and we are electricity trader as well. We are in a unique position. Tim: So, if I understand it, you're working to, on one side, increase the efficiency of HVAC, of cooling and refrigeration, and on the demand side, take advantage of demand response programs that are being offered by Japan's energy company. Takehito: Yeah, right. We control HVAC system, refrigerate and freeze very deeply. And we have two main value. First one is saving electricity consumption. And our second one is creating new electricity resource from electricity consumption side. Tim: Well, I mean, it's a really good topic right now, because it is suddenly very hot in Tokyo. Takehito: Yeah, right. Today's temperature is crazy level. Tim: Yeah, it's just like rainy season ended and it's been 35 degrees for the last week. Yeah, right. Takehito: And also today, summer area reached 40 degrees. Tim: Oh my God, in Japan, that is crazy. It's not supposed to be that hot here. So, let's break that down. How do you create a new electricity resource from consumption? Takehito: We can control the HVAC system very deeply and we use a timing approach. So, for example, the large-scale refrigerator will do overcooling before the demand response timing. So, during electricity type timing, we can reduce the electricity consumption of large-scale refrigerator. So, we can create a new demand response resource. Tim: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. That seems like a very clear and intuitive way to save electricity. So, for commercial or industrial cooling, how much flexibility do they have to kind of overcool? I would imagine like some of those temperature bands must be pretty, pretty tight. Takehito: It depends on the size of the facility. For example, in large-scale cold storage case, temperature range is larger than all in our air conditioner facility. So, we can use this wide range temperature. Tim: So, how much demand response is there in Japan? I mean, four or five years ago, there was a lot of talk about how demand response was going to be an important part of managing the grid. Is that the case? Takehito: Demand response needs is increasing year by year, but demand response resource provider is still small. Actually, just trading demand response is very easy. Most simple ways change a client-side operation, or for example, stop their factory operation. It's very simple. But our operation is very different from that. In our solution, client-side doesn't need to change their business operation. Tim: But from the grid side, how often are demand response signals being sent? Takehito: Currently, once or twice a year. But there's a potential to change in near future because current global warming effect is really big. Tim: So, only a couple of times a year is when you get to take advantage of demand response directly? Takehito: But demand response needs is increasing year by year. So, current demand response resource price is highest price than before. Tim: So, tell me about your customers. Who's using the Greenphard system? Takehito: Our main client is food factory and warehouse owners. And also, air conditioner control case, a lot of kind of client is there. Almost all building and office has the air conditioner. So almost all type of facility is our target. Tim: Yeah. I mean, that makes sense that the cold storage chain, the food warehouses, it makes sense that they would be your initial targets because they are such heavy users of refrigeration and electricity. So, you mentioned like the two parts of your business model. So, one is the demand response. But if that signal only happens a couple of times a year, most of the savings must come from the operational parts. Takehito: Actually, FTC saving impact is not small. For industrial users, we can reduce around 40% in maximum case. Tim: I mean, that's quite significant. What are you doing to reduce those costs? Because I would imagine that most of these systems, they're designed to use as little electricity as possible. So, what are you optimizing? What are you improving to reduce the electricity costs by so much? Takehito: We use a lot of kind of technology. So, AI and compressor frequency control technology. We control refrigerator as soft as possible. It's like a soft control of car acceleration. So, usual refrigerator control the temperature in some temperature range. So, we use this allowance range. So, usual control case, when temperature reached upper side border, power on and reduce temperature very high speed. But in our case, when reached upper side range, we control the down speed more softly. Tim: So, whereas by default, most of the equipment is designed to maintain a very specific temperature, you're working with the customer to figure out what range it can fluctuate in and then minimizing the effort it takes to stay in that range. Takehito: Yeah, right. We control the refrigerator temperature fluctuation more softly. And one more way, the more data driven way, if we plot this temperature fluctuation in a heat map, it's very different with the season. For example, the factory makes same product all years. But after monitoring and analyze the temperature data, temperature heat map is a bit different with the season. So, we optimize this temperature distribution. Tim: Okay, that makes sense. I want to dive deeper into the technology and the business model in just a second. But before that, I want to talk a bit about you. Takehito: Oh, thank you. Tim: So, you've got a background both in energy and startups. So you were originally with Mitsubishi Power and you left to join Synspective, which is a big Japanese startup. And then you left Synspective to start Greenphard. So, what made you decide to leave Synspective and start your own company? Takehito: Oh, actually, before I joined Synspective, I already started my own business. So, I shared my thought to Synspective side. So, Synspective is very open mind, so they accept. Tim: So when you left Mitsubishi, you actually left to start your own startup. Then why join Synspective? Takehito: Because I really interested in the space industry as well. When that time my own business is not so large scale, so I can do some business as well. Tim: Wow. And the team at Synspective was fine with this? There was no problem? Takehito: Yeah, they accepted my work style. Tim: Wow. And so how long were you sort of working at Synspective and building Greenphart? Takehito: Around 2.5 years. Tim: Alright. And what was the trigger to finally say, okay, now we're making a clean break? Takehito: My own business growing year by year. So, I needed to focus on my business. So, I decided to leave Synspective. Tim: And you're still in very friendly terms with the team back at Synspective? Takehito: Yeah, of course. Tim: Oh,...