British Columbians saved 136 megawatt hours of electricity and reduced the provincial electricity load by 1.95 per cent during Earth Hour last Saturday night – the equivalent of turning off more than 10 million 12.5-watt LED light bulbs.
Many communities across the province successfully improved their Earth Hour energy savings from the previous year. Comox and Courtenay saw the highest reduction at nearly 10 per cent. Clearwater came in at the 28th spot with a savings of 3.6 per cent, over Kamloops with a savings of 2.2 per cent, and Barriere not showing up on the published scale which only showed communities with energy savings of .2 per cent and up.
Earth Hour is an annual global event hosted by the World Wildlife Fund and supported by BC Hydro. This year marks the sixth year of BC Hydro’s support of the event. The goal of Earth Hour is to encourage individuals to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics in an effort to conserve power and in doing so, demonstrate support for climate change reduction efforts.
This year, many BC Hydro account holders were able to track their electricity use by logging onto MyHydro – their online account – at www.bchydro.com/myhydro. They were able to see the hourly breakdown for their account and compare Earth Hour electricity use with their use on the Saturday prior to Earth Hour.
Power Smart tips help British Columbians make a difference in energy conservation through simple efforts year-round. Since 2007, BC Hydro’s Power Smart programs have saved close to 4,300 gigawatt hours per year of electricity – enough to power 390,000 B.C. homes.
In 2012, British Columbians saved 121 megawatt hours of electricity and reduced the provincial electricity load by 1.67 per cent during Earth Hour – the equivalent of turning off about 9 million 12.5-watt LED light bulbs.
The total provincial energy savings from Earth Hour participation since 2008 is 500.27 megawatt hours of electricity – the equivalent of turning off 40 million 12.5-watt LED light bulbs.
The province-wide energy savings reported since BC Hydro began supporting Earth Hour are as follows: 121 megawatt hours in 2012; 117 megawatt hours in 2011; 64.6 megawatt hours in 2010; 72.67 megawatt hours in 2009; and 125 megawatt hours in 2008.
New electricity use tracking tools are available online through MyHydro thanks to BC Hydro’s new smart meters and smart grid. About 1.1 million BC Hydro customers now have access to this energy use information. As the remaining smart meters and components of the smart grid are deployed across B.C., more customers will be able to track their own Earth Hour results in the future.
BC Hydro provides tools, resources and incentives to help people conserve year-round. Visit www.bchydro.com/powersmart for more tips on how to be smart with your power.
For more information on Earth Hour, please visit www.bchydro.com/earthhour and www.wwf.ca.