Katsushika-ku, Tokyo - Kanamachi Water Treatment Plant - Installation of cogeneration facilities (around 2000)

Katsushika-ku, Tokyo - Kanamachi Water Treatment Plant - Installation of cogeneration facilities (around 2000)
Around the year 2000, Japan's urban infrastructure was simultaneously facing the dual demands of efficiency and environmental friendliness. While public facilities were required to cut costs due to financial constraints after the collapse of the bubble economy, energy conservation and reduction of greenhouse gases were becoming clear policy issues against the backdrop of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Water purification plants are facilities that consume large amounts of electricity, and their use of energy itself was being questioned.

The Kanamachi Water Purification Plant in Katsushika-ku, Tokyo, is one of the largest water purification plants in Tokyo, and is a huge infrastructure that processes up to 800,000 tons per day. In the past, the plant purchased all of its electricity from an outside source, but the increasing cost of electricity and supply risk had become an issue. The cogeneration system, which combines gas turbine power generation with the use of waste heat, was introduced to address these issues. The technology was adopted to increase overall efficiency and reduce energy waste by utilizing heat at the same time as power generation.

In addition to its energy-saving effects, this facility also serves as a distributed power source. In the wake of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, disaster resistance and resilience of urban infrastructure have been emphasized, and it was significant for a water purification plant, which is a lifeline facility, to have its own power generation capability. The Kanamachi Water Purification Plant case represents a turning point at which metropolitan infrastructures have begun to incorporate environmentally friendly energy technologies into their operations.