(President: Yoshimitsu Shibata, hereinafter “Toho Gas Network”)and(CEO: Hiroaki Sengoku; hereinafter referred to as “Microbase”) have completed a demonstration experiment for “predicting future vacant houses” for the efficient renewal of gas pipes that are connected to customers’ homes (hereinafter referred to as “aged gas pipes”), which has been conducted since September 2022.

By utilizing data on city gas consumption, gas pipe types, and the number of years of gas pipes installed in each residence held by the Toho Gas Network and the AI algorithm “MiraiE.ai ”* developed by Microbase, it is possible to predict the future status of vacant houses for each residence, and the accuracy of the prediction four years later has been confirmed to be approximately 90%. The accuracy of the prediction after four years was confirmed to be approximately 90%. This is the first time in Japan that city gas consumption and other data are applied to AI to predict future vacant houses.

Toho Gas Networks will revise its approach to prioritizing the replacement of aging gas pipes for security purposes from the conventional approach based on the type of gas pipe and the age of the buried gas pipes to the approach of using this forecast and proceeding with measures for those pipes that are least likely to become unoccupied. This approach is expected to significantly avoid unused gas pipes after the replacement of aged gas pipes.
Toho Gas Network, in cooperation with Microbase, will develop this initiative to help other gas service providers in their efforts to replace aging pipes. In addition, Toho Gas Networks aims to further improve the efficiency and sophistication of its operations through the active use of AI.