London, UK, February 13th, 2013 - Hitachi Europe Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) today announced its Smart Cities Energy Group, in partnership with Western Power Distribution (WPD), is to expand trials of its smart grid technology in South West England and South Wales. The series of field tests will enable the simpler and cheaper integration of renewable sources of electricity into local distribution networks and is being led by WPD under the UK energy regulator’s Low Carbon Networks Fund (LCNF).