Earth Hour in Cebu saves 17.15 MW

Parts of Metro Cebu were  dark after establishments and households switched off their lights to join the Earth Hour celebration last night.

Teresa Gonzales, Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) manager, said the drop in energy demand  during the Earth Hour last Saturday is 11.02 megawatts (MW) or almost four times the 2.77 MW last year. Veco’s franchise area covers Liloan town in the north and San Fernando town in the south.

The amount of power saved was equivalent to an hour’s power consumption for 340,000 households.

“This goes to show that there are more people switching off their lights due to Earth Hour,” she said.

Its data showed that the 11.02-MW drop in power use on Saturday was bigger than the 2.77-MW decline in 2012, the 6.98-MW decline in the 2011, and the 11.01-MW reduction in 2009.

Last Saturday’s figure, however, was lower than the reduction in power consumption of 13.25 MW in the 2010 Earth Hour.

Gonzales said they hope to lower the power drop next year.

Sebastian Lacson of Veco said they intend to put up ads next year to invite more participants in next year’s Earth Hour.

Only in Cebu

In the Visayas, only Cebu registered a bigger drop in power consumption during at 17.15 MW compared with last year’s 15 MW drop, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said in a report.

While Cebu’s contribution to the Earth Hour increased, overall in the Visayas, the energy savings dropped to 42.3 MW last Saturday evening from 57 MW in 2012, data from the Department of Energy shows.

Power consumption on Leyte and Samar islands dropped by 7.9 MW, significantly less than the 21-MW drop in 2012.

The drop was also less on Panay island (7.16 MW compared with last year’s 8 MW), Negros Island (6.57 MW compared with 8 MW) and Bohol island (3.65 MW compared with 5 MW).

About 250 people who gathered at the Plaza Independencia last Saturday night where the 2013 Earth Hour program was held made commitments for mother Earth.

Participants shared their own “I will if you will” challenge while waiting for 9:30 p.m.

Angel, 13,  went up the  stage to promise that she will take her bike to schools everyday, “if you will make bike lanes for me.”

For the 4th time, the Cebu City government has been supporting the global event after it was first organized in Sydney, Australia in 2007 by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

But Mayor Michael Rama, who attended the Team Rama recollection skipped this year’s Earth Day activities.

The WWF in partnership with the Aboitiz Group joined this year’s Earth Hour with the theme “Uniting Filipinos to Protect the Earth.”

“The Aboitiz group believes in the Earth Hour cause and for the 4th straight year, takes part in this movement,” said Erramon Abotiz, president and CEO of Aboitiz Equity Ventures.

This year’s celebration started with a 5:30 pm walkathon from Fuente Osmeña circle to Plaza Independencia and was followed by a short program that started at 7 p.m. and hosted by Carol Ballesteros of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI).

Cebu City government structures and properties like the senior citizens park and City Hall building also switched off its lights.

Councilor Nida Cabrera, head of the council’s environment committee, earlier passed a resolution enjoining all the 80 barangays to also switch off their lights for one hour during the Earth Hour celebration.

Hotels like Club Ultima and Crown Regency hotel also joined the Earth Hour by switching off their lights.

Before the switch off started, Ms. Tourism International winner Rizzini Alexis Gomez led the reading of the Earth Hour pledge.

When the clock stuck 8:30 p.m. and the lights were turned off, sandlers were light up to provide light to the already dark Plaza Independencia.

Major malls, business centers, hotels and a shipyard were among the participants of Earth Hour in Cebu.

Fortune Shipworks, a medium-sized ship repair and ship builder in Barangay Tayud, Consolacion town as well as SM City malls in Cebu City and in Consolacion town also joined in the switch off.

The common area lights in the Cebu Business Park (CBP) and the Cebu I.T. Park were turned off for an hour during the Earth Hour. Both are flagship projects of Ayala-owned Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) and Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp. CPVDC).

Managed properties of CHI and CPVDC within the parks also took part in Earth Hour. These were Ayala Center Cebu, Cebu Holdings Center, Ayala Life-FGU Centre, City Sports Club Cebu, The Walk, eBloc Towers 1 7 2, and the Office. /Tweeny M. Malinao and Inquirer