Germany has gained extensive experience in terms of decentralising the energy supply in the last few years. Examples are citizen-financed power plants based on renewable energies, the establishment of energy cooperatives and municipal public utilities as well as the realisation of so-called bioenergy villages ("Bioenergiedörfer").

The project "Capacity Building for Decentralised Energy Supply Actors in Japan" aims to use the experiences made and the insights gained in Germany to prepare a consulting kit for Japanese municipalities. Through a structured and intensive exchange of information and the development of communication and advisory structures, Japanese municipalities and regional energy suppliers are to be enabled to make a similarly important contribution to energy transition and thus to climate protection as municipal utilities and municipalities in Germany.

In addition to the Wuppertal Institute, Hennicke Consult and ECOS Consult also belong to the working consortium. On the German side, the German Association of Local Utilities (VKU) as well as the municipal utilities of Osnabrück and Wuppertal are also involved in the project as partners in practice. On the Japanese side, the practice partners are NTT DATA IMC (a Japanese service provider for municipalities) and Miyama Smart Energy as the local electricity supplier of the municipality of Miyama.

The client is the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The project is also supported by the Japanese Ministry of Economy (MoEJ).