Prince George saw a three per cent drop in power consumption during Earth Hour on Saturday, according to information released by B.C. Hydro.
The eight annual event organized by the World Wildlife Foundation asked resident to turn off their lights and unnecessary electronics from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday as a symbolic gesture to raise awareness about environmental issues. According to www.earthhour.org, hundreds of millions of people participated on Saturday in 162 countries and 7,000 cities.
In a statement, B.C. Hydro said British Columbians reduced their power consumption by one per cent this year, compared with 1.95 per cent in 2013. Whistler had the largest reduction in the province with six per cent less power consumption.
Prince George was tied with North Vancouver City, North Vancouver District and View Royal for eighth place. In 2013, Prince George did not achieve any measurable decrease in power consumption.
As in previous years, the decorative tree lights outside City Hall will be turned off for the duration of Earth Hour.
Across Canada, municipalities and power utilities promoted the event.
In New Brunswick the government-owned utililty NB Power tweeted a picture of its Fredericton headquarters darkened.
Toronto's CN Tower turned off all exterior lighting except for aircraft safety lights and reduced as much interior lighting as it could.
Toronto Hydro tweeted that power usage dropped by six per cent during Earth Hour.
-- With files from The Canadian Press
