Buildings are illuminated less than normal due to scheduled blackouts Thursday in Tokyo.March 17, 2011
Japanese Officials Warn Massive Blackouts Could Hit Tokyo
Kyodo News
Tokyo's 35 million residents are preparing for massive blackouts after Japan's government warned that freezing conditions were straining the country's quake-ravaged electricity grid.
Power demand spiked in the city today when citizens switched on heaters to cope with a cold snap. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda told a news conference earlier today that if demand hit the same level tonight, vast sections of the capital would lose power.
"There is a possibility of unpredictable, large-scale blackout," Kaieda said, according to Reuters. "In order to make sure to avoid the unexpected, we'd like to ask industry users to save electricity and ordinary people to save electricity in the evening and at night.
Buildings are illuminated less than normal due to scheduled blackouts Thursday in Tokyo.So far, the city seems to have avoided a major outage, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano warned that Tokyo might suffer unplanned outages Friday unless it slashed electricity consumption.
The amount of power generated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the region's main energy utility, has dropped by 25 percent following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. That disaster knocked out two of the company's nuclear power stations -- including a plant at Fukushima, which is now pumping radioactive steam into the atmosphere -- as well as numerous power lines and substations.
To cover the energy shortfall, TEPCO on Monday introduced staggered, rolling blackouts across the greater Tokyo area. Whole districts of the city -- famed for its always-blazing neon lights and electric billboards -- have descended into darkness for up to four hours at a time as millions of homes, offices, shops, factories and street lights were switched off to save power. Tokyo Tower, a landmark that has lit up the capital's night sky with 176 floodlights for the past 22 years, has also been darkened over for the past six days.
"We all should play our parts, so we shouldn't use electricity if it isn't necessary," Masakazu Yoshida told Bloomberg. Yoshida is an administrative official at Nippon Television City Corp., which operates the 1,093-foot beacon. "We know the tower is symbolic, so it was really tough to make the decision to turn it off."
Many citizens have seemingly been confused by timetables setting out when their neighborhood will lose power, and more than 120 people have found themselves trapped in elevators during shutdowns, Kyodo news reports.
Despite these energy-rationing measures, which are expected to remain in place until April at the earliest, Tokyo's grid came dangerously close to being overloaded today. The maximum amount of power TEPCO can currently supply is 33.5 million kilowatts, but demand hit a peak of 33.3 million kilowatts between 9 and 10 a.m.
To help further reduce the city's energy consumption, regional railway operators today announced that they would cut back the number of trains operating in Tokyo. Many other businesses sent workers home early, Kyodo reports, while convenience store chain FamilyMart Co. announced that it would halve the use of fluorescent lighting at its shops.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/17/japanese-officials-warn-massive-blackouts-could-hit-tokyo/
Japanese Officials Warn Massive Blackouts Could Hit Tokyo
Kyodo News
Tokyo's 35 million residents are preparing for massive blackouts after Japan's government warned that freezing conditions were straining the country's quake-ravaged electricity grid.
Power demand spiked in the city today when citizens switched on heaters to cope with a cold snap. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda told a news conference earlier today that if demand hit the same level tonight, vast sections of the capital would lose power.
"There is a possibility of unpredictable, large-scale blackout," Kaieda said, according to Reuters. "In order to make sure to avoid the unexpected, we'd like to ask industry users to save electricity and ordinary people to save electricity in the evening and at night.
Buildings are illuminated less than normal due to scheduled blackouts Thursday in Tokyo.So far, the city seems to have avoided a major outage, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano warned that Tokyo might suffer unplanned outages Friday unless it slashed electricity consumption.
The amount of power generated by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the region's main energy utility, has dropped by 25 percent following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. That disaster knocked out two of the company's nuclear power stations -- including a plant at Fukushima, which is now pumping radioactive steam into the atmosphere -- as well as numerous power lines and substations.
To cover the energy shortfall, TEPCO on Monday introduced staggered, rolling blackouts across the greater Tokyo area. Whole districts of the city -- famed for its always-blazing neon lights and electric billboards -- have descended into darkness for up to four hours at a time as millions of homes, offices, shops, factories and street lights were switched off to save power. Tokyo Tower, a landmark that has lit up the capital's night sky with 176 floodlights for the past 22 years, has also been darkened over for the past six days.
"We all should play our parts, so we shouldn't use electricity if it isn't necessary," Masakazu Yoshida told Bloomberg. Yoshida is an administrative official at Nippon Television City Corp., which operates the 1,093-foot beacon. "We know the tower is symbolic, so it was really tough to make the decision to turn it off."
Many citizens have seemingly been confused by timetables setting out when their neighborhood will lose power, and more than 120 people have found themselves trapped in elevators during shutdowns, Kyodo news reports.
Despite these energy-rationing measures, which are expected to remain in place until April at the earliest, Tokyo's grid came dangerously close to being overloaded today. The maximum amount of power TEPCO can currently supply is 33.5 million kilowatts, but demand hit a peak of 33.3 million kilowatts between 9 and 10 a.m.
To help further reduce the city's energy consumption, regional railway operators today announced that they would cut back the number of trains operating in Tokyo. Many other businesses sent workers home early, Kyodo reports, while convenience store chain FamilyMart Co. announced that it would halve the use of fluorescent lighting at its shops.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/17/japanese-officials-warn-massive-blackouts-could-hit-tokyo/
