Coca-Cola to Install Peak-Shift Vending Machines

Copyright Coca-Cola Japan Co.

Coca-Cola, a major beverage group in Japan with the largest share of the domestic vending machine market, announced on November 19, 2012, that it would install 25,000 peak-shift vending machines throughout Japan by the end of 2013. Peak-shift vending machines are designed not to use electricity for cooling beverages during the daytime, when demand on the electricity grid is at its peak.

The new vending machine was jointly developed by Coca-Cola Japan Co., and Fuji Electric Co., a major Japanese manufacturer of electrical machinery and appliances, to cope with the tight electricity supply during the daytime following the Great East Japan Earthquake. With its modified cooling method and improved insulation and airtightness, the vending machine is capable of cooling beverage products during the night, when there is typically a surplus of electricity, and keeping products cool during the daytime even when the cooling function is switched off.

A field test was carried out in summer 2012 in the areas around Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture and Tajimi in Gifu Prefecture, both of which are well known for their broiling hot summer weather. Results showed that the vending machine was capable of selling chilled beverages for a maximum of 16 hours with the switch off, cutting electricity consumption by 95 percent during the daytime.

The peak-shift vending machine, with its improved insulation and airtightness, is also expected to reduce electricity use for heating beverage products during the winter season.