Tokyo-based TEPCO Holdings acquired from Colorado-based Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc., a 50 percent interest in Battery Utility of Ohio, LLC, which provides frequency regulation services to PJM, a regional U.S. transmission network operator. TEPCO and RES will each own 50 percent of BUO.

BUO uses a battery storage system manufactured by BYD America, a large Chinese battery supplier, along with the RESolve control and monitoring software developed by RES. The system provides balancing services to PJM, which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

TEPCO says that it expects to use the knowledge and technological expertise it gains through this relationship to provide trading and balancing resources to Japan’s newly deregulated electricity distribution market by 2020.

TEPCO is the owner of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged in an accident following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan.