Environment
Earth Hour Makes Like the TSX: Power Use Drops 15%
The cynics took a (well-lit?) backseat tonight during Earth Hour as Torontonians blew past last year's powered down mark on the way to a 15% reduction in electricity use. Just before 9:30 and the official end of Earth Hour the Big Board hit 2545 MW, a 450 MW drop from a typical Toronto Saturday night in late March. That's the rough equivalent of turning off 750,000 60 watt light bulbs.
From my vantage point inside Toronto Hydro's top secret control room it was obvious the extra supervisors and management types (and even live bloggers!) were on hand to see just how low TO could go.
Even with a front row seat to Toronto's participation, WWF-Canada VP and Chief Conservation Officer Arlin Hackman couldn't help but think global. "The big story is what's happening globally," he said, thinking of the roughly 4,000 cities in 80 countries participating. "It's a truly global initiative."
In fact, the WWF wasn't thinking about the drop in electricity, but how many people participated. They were aiming for a billion people participating.
Of course there's no way to measure how many people participated, so those of us in the control room eagerly watched the power load dip lower and lower, from about 2700 MW at 8:30 to about 2550 MW at 9:30. The baseline load is 3000 MW, calculated on a multi-year average for the last Saturday night in March. The reason we start several hundred megawatts below that mark is because the large commercial customers (I'm looking at you, Bay Street!) powered down in advance.
Before Earth Hour even began, we had beaten last year's mark of a 262 MW drop, making it clear just how crucial the large consumers are in making a big dent in power use. In fact, those large consumers represented about half of Toronto's decrease.
Last year Milton lead all GTA municipalities with a 15% drop, a mark Toronto has now matched. As more official numbers come out we'll see who does the best job of turning out the lights. And of course see what our minimum reduction will have to be next year, too. No doubt it will become harder and harder to go lower, but as Arlin pointed out, look how easy it is to reduce our electricity use in such a huge way.
And for all those people who deride Earth Hour as just a symbol, that's ok. Symbols are a powerful thing. Earth Hour may not change or save the world, but it's not meant to. Maybe a few more people will think about their eco-footprint, but regardless, by all accounts, Earth Hour 2009 was a huge success.
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Toronto, next year it should be 25%!!
When will Toronto Hydro be asking for a rate increase to compensate for the lost revenue during this period?
Its nice that people are willing to do something symbolically, but it'd be nicer if we could just start targeting blatant waste.
Personally, I've never understood why we must water the grass.
Take a look at the before/after shots of the cross on Mont. Royal in Montreal for a great example.
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/siteShared/demand_price.asp?sid=ic
Now, I know that electrical metering is a complicated topic but I rather suspect the 6% and the 15% figures are arbitrary. The whole thing was ridiculous.
We need to water the grass because unlike hipsters we don't live in a 1 bedroom studio about-to-be-torn-down apartment. And the only reason it won't get torn down because the hipsters are squatters refusing to move out.
Toronto Hydro uses 3000 MW as their starting point because for several years prior to the start of Earth Hour, 3000 MW was the average load on the last Saturday in March. But last week the load was over 3000 MW Saturday night as well (it was also maybe 5% colder).
It's true that the load never goes back to pre-Earth Hour levels, but it does go back up before falling off again for the overnight dip. It's just hard to see that without adjusting the scale.
a) I'm about as far from a "hipster" as it gets and I hate the "OMGGETTHETIMHORTONSOUTOFMYAREA!!!" douchebags with a passion.
b) I'm a strong proponent of reading glasses, which is why I suggest you invest in a pair
c) I saw "water the sidewalk". Where from that did you derive that I said don't water the grass? Maybe its because I'm a "hipster", but none of my neighbourhood's sidewalks have grass - they are concrete.
d) With all the warnings about telling people to watch their water consumption in the summer, just because you pay for it doesn't mean you abuse it. I pay taxes, so should I go to the hospital every 5 minutes to get diagnosed for absolutely nothing just "because I paid for it"?
I'm surprised someone so stupid has the ability to earn enough money to pay for a hydro bill.
Read a little closer. Did I say flashlights were green? No.
The kids came to the local park to see the darkness, and were excited enough to bring flashlights. Unfortunately, the city left the floodlights on.
My point was that the city is preaching green, but not practicing it. And spoiled the fun for local kids at the same time.
As long as I pay the hydro bill, by law I can hose whatever I want. That includes sidewalks, grass and hipsters harassing me.