April 29, 2011
New Challenge Emerges for Tokyo to Be Less Power-Hungry City after Disastrous Quake
Tokyo is becoming a hard place for the physically weak for their activities with electrically driven systems like escalators stopped at railway stations and other public facilities amid fears of power shortage toward this summer.
JR Hamamatsucho Station on Tokyo’s Yamanote loop line is not an exception to this phenomenon. The station, which handles about 150,000 passengers a day, is a main gateway to Tokyo International Airport at Haneda from the heart of the capital.
The partial suspension of power-using systems at railway stations, shopping mails and other major places is part of a campaign to reduce the consumption of electricity in the greater Tokyo area. Power supply to the area is covered by Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Toden. But its No. 1 Fukushima nuclear plant has been seriously damaged by the devastating earthquake and the ensuing killer tsunami waves of March 11, causing an extensive power shortage in Tokyo and neighboring areas.
Upon arrival at Hamamatsucho, passengers go straight to the exit or the gate for the airport-bound monorail train service through stairways without giving a glance at the escalators. Most passengers are getting accustomed with the inconvenience, but it is a hard work for elderly people to use stairways. Elevators are available at some platforms, but they have to walk up there.
Consumers in the greater Tokyo area also had to accept rolling blackouts from early morning to evening in a few weeks after the disaster. This was explained by Toden as a measure to avoid a sudden blackout.
Power consumption in the Tokyo area climbs to peak levels every summer because of the use of air conditioners. Toden could weather the power shortage just after the disaster, but major power users, including railway operators, and consumers have been asked to continue to reduce their electricity use toward summer.
Energy-saving campaigns had been launched every summer in recent years in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions to prevent the global warming from worsening further, but they were not necessarily successful. The current situation is very serious for power users in Tokyo, commercial or noncommercial, but this is a good opportunity for consumers to seriously think about how to reduce their use of electricity and to this end, how to change their lifestyle, experts say.
Nuclear power generation has been supported as a clean energy source in the recent decades, but the latest mishap is expected to trigger a serious debate about the advisability of continuing Japan’s existing nuclear power policy. Japan must make redoubled efforts to increase the use of even cleaner, recyclable energy sources, especially solar energy, and eventually make itself a less power-hungry society, experts say.
A new hard challenge has been posed for people in Tokyo and many other parts of Japan. Economic growth is expected to be sacrificed in the next few years, but Japan should overcome this challenge and reemerge as a less power-hungry, more environmentally friendly economy in the future.
