Kamloops cuts electricity use just a little bit

NEWS — It wasn’t a lot, but it was a little.

Kamloops residents saved .9 per cent on electricity during Saturday night’s Earth Hour, less than half what they reduced their consumption by the year before. But that’s almost on par with what the rest of the province did on average.

In total, B.C. Hydro said British Columbians saved 65 megawatt hours and cut the provincial electricity load by one per cent. That’s like turning off 1.4 million lights.

In 2013, Kamloops used 2.2 per cent less power between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. The year before that it was 3.6 per cent. After last year’s performance, City councillors vowed to find out why other cities were doing better than Kamloops — clearly, it didn’t work.

Kamloops was 61st on the list of participating B.C. cities. Topping the list for reducing electricity use was Whistler at six per cent, followed closely by Esquimalt, Lytton, and Lumby.

100 Mile House scored well with 3.3 per cent, while Prince George was 3 per cent, Vancouver 2.1 per cent, Peachland 1.3 per cent and Abbotsford just 0.1 per cent.

More than 7,000 cities and towns in more than 150 countries took part in Earth Hour, which is headed up by the World Wildlife Fund in an effort to draw attention to environmental issues.

Hydro customers can view their energy use for Saturday evening by logging onto MyHydro, their online account at http://www.myhydro.com/myhydro, and get an hourly breakdown of their electricity use.