More Cebuanos urged to turn off lights for Earth Hour

WITH Earth Hour scheduled at 8:30 tonight, the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) called on both households and commercial establishments to temporarily turn off their lights as part of the annual observance.

In the past five years, Veco noted only a minimal average decline in power usage every Earth Hour which always falls on a Saturday, a usually low power demand day in Cebu since most offices are closed for the weekend.

In Metro Cebu, Veco data showed a drop of 11.01 MW in 2009 which rose to 13.25 MW in 2010 for one hour. But it lowered to 6.98 MW in 2011 and dropped to 2.01 MW last year.

Veco is currently serving 340,000 clients within their franchise area from San Fernando in the south down to Liloan in the north with an average peak demand of about 410 MW as of March.

In 2008, the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. noted that power consumption dropped by about 78.63 megawatts in Metro Manila and up to 102.2 megawatts in the whole of Luzon area during the Earth Hour observance.

Major malls, hotels and groups will hold their ceremonial switch-off for the event.

Ayala Center Cebu will hold theirs at 6:30 p.m. with the Sponge Cola band. Cebu Business Park and radio station Y101 will also host a Family Fun Day at the Park from 2p.m. to 6p.m.

“The Habagat Earth Hour Night Ride will start at 8:30p.m. at the Cebu IT Park,” said Cebu Holdings, Inc. corporate communications manager Jeanette Japzon.

Another major mall, SM City Cebu will also hold their ceremonial lights off with a party at The Northwing Al Fresco area with fire dancers and drumbeaters.

Hotels like Quest Hotel, Marco Polo Plaza Hotel will also be hosting Earth Hour 2013 events in their properties.

While the impact is not that huge in terms of average power usage, Gonzales said the real success can be seen in public awareness about the cause and the gradual growth in number of participants to the annual event.

“(This awareness) may not necessarily be reflected in the kwh (kilowatt hour) consumption because consumption will always be on the rise caused by increase in population and increase in economic activity,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales urged the public to get more actively involved in taking care of the environment because it is everyone’s responsibility.

She said one can start by holding Earth Hour at home and making their children more aware of the responsibility that everyone holds for the protection of Mother Nature.

Earth Hour was conceived by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2007 starting with 2.2 million residents of Sydney, Australia who turned off all non-essential lights for a whole hour.

Since, then Earth Hour is held towards the end of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness on the need to do something to help mitigate climate change.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said it was time again for Filipinos to “shine out” and showcase their environmental awareness by switching off their lights for 60 minutes.

“This mass switch-off means less consumption of electricity, slowing the buildup of climate change-inducing carbon dioxide in our atmosphere,” Paje said.

Since 2009, or two years after Earth Hour was launched, the Philippines has consistently topped the event in terms of the number of participating cities and towns, earning the title, “Earth Hour Hero Country.”

Last year a record-breaking 1,671 cities and towns in the Philippines joined the 60-minute switch-off, according to the WWF-Philippines.

Organizers said they are were gunning for the country’s fifth consecutive first-place finish on March 23. with an Inquirer report