Kyushu Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it will join a project set up by a Philippine company to supply electricity to the country's remote islands using microgrids.

Kyushu Electric said it will invest and provide technical assistance to PowerSource Group though the amount of its investment in the Philippine project is not immediately known.

Microgrids are small power grids used to supply electricity to settlements located in mountains and remote islands not connected to larger power grids, commonly using solar power and diesel generators.

Kyushu Electric plans to utilize the technology in the future for mountainous regions in the Kyushu region in southwestern Japan with high transmission costs, as well as areas in Southeast Asia and Africa that have limited access to electricity.

Kyushu Electric "contributes to the supply of environmental-friendly energy and to the expansion of PowerSource's microgrid business by implementing renewable energy sources and providing technical support such as operation and maintenance improvement of PowerSource's power plants," the company said in a press release.

At present, PowerSource provides 100 to 2,100 kilowatts of electricity generated by diesel to six sites on and around Palawan Island and one site near Cebu Island.

The Philippine operator plans to expand supplies to more than 10 other sites.

Kyushu Electric will extend technical support for the introduction of solar power and batteries at the sites.

The utility used microgrids in a demonstration experiment on a remote island in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, from 2010 to 2013.