Earth Hour a huge success in BC

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There were big energy savings at a number of Earth Hour “testing points” around BC last night.

Alexi Bergeron is with Pulse Energy, a company that runs energy management software in Vancouver.

He says they monitored a dozen sites including UBC, the Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver, and the remote community of Hartley Bay.  “On average, [that] site saved 20 per cent over the Earth Hour and saved a total of two megawatt hours.  That’s about enough energy to run the SkyTrain across Canada.”

For several years in a row, Hartley Bay has been able to reduce its consumption by 100 per cent.

On the South Coast, Pitt Meadows was the best in the province when it came to turning off the lights during Earth Hour last night.

That city’s electricity consumption for the hour managed to drop by six per cent.  The northern town of Tumbler Ridge came in second.

Simi Heer with BC Hydro says overall, energy savings doubled over last year.  “This year leading up to Earth Hour, we were hearing more from our business, commercial and industrial customers about what they can do to participate.  We think the increase in savings this year came from participation from the business and industrial sector.”

The amount of electricity saved according to Heer was the same as turning off close to eight million light bulbs.

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