British Columbians saved 15-megawatt hours of electricity and reduced the provincial electricity load by 0.2 per cent during Earth Hour on Saturday night, March 28 — the equivalent of turning off about 680,000 LED light bulbs.
It was, however, the lowest recorded total in eight years of Earth Hour events.
Earth Hour is an annual global event hosted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). People around the world are encouraged to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics for one hour. It started as a one-city initiative in Sydney, Australia in 2007.
Whistler, at 7.2 per cent was the top B.C. community who saved the most electricity load, while Sechelt came in at 0.5 per cent and was the only recorded community on the Sunshine Coast with results provided by BC Hydro.
BC Hydro provides tools, resources and incentives to help people conserve year-round. For more tips on how to be smart with your power, visit bchydro.com/powersmart. Since 2008, BC Hydro’s Power Smart programs have saved close to 4,776 gigawatt hours per year of electricity — enough to power 440,000 homes annually.
BC Hydro customers can view their individual energy use for Saturday evening by logging onto MyHydro — their online account at bchydro.com/myhydro. They can get an hourly breakdown of their electricity use.
