BAGUIO CITY, Philippines ? The Presidential Commission on Climate Change and the Department of Energy launched on Thursday this year?s Global Earth Hour Campaign, hoping to match the participation in 2009 of 10 million Filipinos, who saved 611 megawatts of electricity.

But the impact of El Niño on power generation, particularly in Mindanao, is drawing commitments for a weekly, and even daily, earth hour, said Energy Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan, one of the officials, who kicked off the Earth Hour road show at the University of the Cordilleras here.

On March 27, the country may save as much as 900 MW to 1,000 MW of electricity when people switch off their lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., PCCC Commissioner Naderev Saño said.

National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), which operates the main power distribution system of the country, will monitor how much the campaign would save this year, said Maxine Tanya Hamada, NGCP?s representative to the road show.

Earth Hour is a global awareness campaign that encourages people to switch off power on the last Saturday of every March.

Last year, 4,088 cities in 88 countries, representing a billion people, switched off their lights on March 29, said Marasigan.

Ramon Dacawi, City Hall information officer and a resident of Barangay Pagasa here, said his neighborhood switched off power for two hours last year, instead of the required hour.

But he said households in his village were prepared to switch off their lights for three and a half hours.

Luzon?s troubles would be over by the end of March when the natural gas-fired plants that generate 2,700 MW go on-stream, he said.