Vancouver, B.C. – BC Hydro says British Columbians saved 15 megawatt hours of electricity and reduced the provincial electricity load by 0.2 per cent during Earth Hour Saturday night, the equivalent of turning off about 680,000 LED light bulbs.

Earth Hour is an annual global event in which people around the world are encouraged to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics for one hour. It started as a one-city initiative in Sydney, Australia in 2007.

BC Hydro customers can view their individual energy use for Saturday evening by logging onto MyHydro — their online account at bchydro.com/myhydro. They can get an hourly breakdown of their electricity use.

Earth Hour savings by year in B.C. range from a low of 15 megawatt hours or 0.2 per cent reduction in overall provincial load in 2015 to a high of 125 megawatt hours or 2 per cent reduction in 2008.

As far as the breakdown by community goes, the reduction in electricity use was highest in Whistler at  7.2%, Houston 3.9%, Port Edward and Prince Rupert 2.3%, Kitimat and Victoria 1.5%, Kamloops 1.2%, 100 Mile House 0.7% (the same as Vancouver), Quesnel at 0.3%.

If there was a reduction in electricity use in Prince George it was so minimal that it failed to show up on a list of 65 communities around the province which were noted by B.C. Hydro for electricity savings during Earth Hour.