CDW Holding’s subsidiary Tomoike Industrial Co. Ltd. (Tomoike Industrial) has signed a sales distribution agreement with Tocad Energy Co. Ltd., a leading energy storage systems manufacturer in Japan for the national rights to distribute Tocad Energy’s “CUBOX” line of portable, lithium-ion battery packs designed for use in industrial, household and medical settings in Japan.
Ideal Emergency Power Sources
The three kinds of CUBOX battery packs, weighing between 16 to 68 kilograms each, are ideal as emergency power sources for critical business processes. These include places such as server rooms, point of sales systems, and lighting in commercial buildings and emergency services.
They have also proven valuable particularly in the healthcare industry by providing backup power in as little as 10 to 20 milliseconds (0.01 to 0.02 seconds) and are currently being used in over 30 hospitals in Japan to keep critical equipment such as life support systems, ventilators and medical refrigerators running in the event of a power interruption during emergencies or natural disasters.
The CUBOX battery packs can also power ultra-low temperature freezers which store COVID-19 vaccines. These special freezers require between 5 to 10 times the normal maximum instantaneous inrush current of normal freezers. CUBOX’s largest battery pack can withstand an inrush current of up to 4,500W, which exceeds the current specifications of existing ultra-low temperature freezers approved for use by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW). Also, unlike other high-capacity portable power systems, the CUBOX line of battery packs feature built-in caster wheels, inverters, and uninterruptable power supply systems, making them simpler to use and easier to install in vehicles to power cold supply chains.
“Demand for rechargeable energy storage systems will only continue to grow, especially in the healthcare sector. As the Covid-19 current pandemic has shown, decentralized access to healthcare services like vaccinations will become a key measure of countries’ resilience to natural calamities like this one. High-performance battery packs like CUBOX are critical to such capabilities. We will continue to pursue near-term growth as well as seek opportunities in the energy storage industry that will diversify our revenue for future growth prospects”, said Mr Yoshikawa Makoto, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CDW.
Flexible use for mobile vaccine centres or high-capacity ESS
The powerful, portable battery packs also can be used at mobile vaccination sites to deliver vaccines to underpopulated areas far from major cities. Large tour buses which are no longer in use due to a big drop in tourism are already being converted as mobile vaccinations sites in Japan, China and the United States. Many such vaccine buses currently use cold storage boxes filled with dry ice to keep vaccines refrigerated, but the need to frequently replenish dry ice limits the range and capacity of these mobile vaccine centres.
Seeing the growing need for freezer-equipped mobile vaccination centers, Tomoike Industrial has signed an agreement with Kyushu Densetsu Co., Ltd. to explore using CUBOX battery packs for ultra-low temperature freezers to store COVID-19 vaccines on board these buses. Founded in 1985, Kyushu Densetsu specializes in providing electrical systems for office buildings, hospitals, welfare facilities, storage, and solar power generation facilities.
The familiar threat of earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan has also created sizeable domestic demand for high-capacity energy storage systems. Power outages in Japan, though infrequent, are recorded to have lasted as long as up to 514 minutes on average per household in times of disasters. According to a 2020 study on Energy Storage System (ESS) and Stationary ESS conducted by market intelligence firm Fuji Keizai Group, the global market for rechargeable batteries used in homes was estimated at ¥122.6 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach ¥367.3 billion by 2035, triple that of 2019. In Japan, this figure was estimated to be ¥38.5 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach ¥78.2 billion by 2035, double that of 2019. The global market for rechargeable batteries used in businesses was estimated to be ¥136.2 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach ¥337.8 billion by 2035, which is 2.5 times the market size in 2019.
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CDW Holding Limited (the “Company” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) is a Japanese-managed precision components specialist serving the global market focusing on the production and supply of niche precision components for digital instrument panels in the automobile industry, notebook computers, consumer and information technology equipment, office equipment and electrical appliances, and an original equipment manufacturer. The Group is headquartered in Hong Kong and has operations in Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. The Company has been identifying new businesses to invest in with the potential for growth and entered as part of its diversification strategy and has made forays into the Life Sciences sector since 2016. The Company’s aim for its Life Sciences business is to identify research-driven yet commercialisable projects that can have a positive impact on the quality of human life.
