Thousands across York Region power down for Earth Hour

Yorkregion.com
March 21, 2016
By Chris Simon

It was a little darker than normal across York Region Saturday night.

Thousands of residents throughout the area powered down during Earth Hour March 19. Newmarket-Tay Hydro reported electricity consumption dropped by 4.7 megawatts across Newmarket, a 6.1-per-cent decrease when compared to a typical Saturday night in March.

That's the equivalent of taking 145 Newmarket homes off the grid for an hour, Newmarket-Tay representatives told The Era.

Many PowerStream customers in Aurora, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan also reduced consumption. Aurora powered down by 5.9 per cent (2.98 MWs), Bradford dropped by 7.8 (1.66 MWs), Markham and Richmond Hill lowered consumption by 4.1 (11.07 and 5.67 MWs, respectively) and Vaughan decreased by 3.7 (12.04 MW), when compared to usage patterns on similar types of days.

PowerStream serves more than 375,000 customers in nine York and Simcoe County municipalities. Its control centre reported a service territory-wide 4.2-per- cent consumption reduction, down from the six per cent achieved during last year's Earth Hour.

The 2016 PowerStream results represented a total savings of 43 megawatts in peak demand, or enough electricity to power 1,303 average-size homes over a 24-hour period.

“Earth Hour is a symbolic and meaningful event for residents to demonstrate their support to help fight climate change and shed light on how we can all make a difference by reducing our electricity consumption,” Vaughan Mayor and PowerStream board chair Maurizio Bevilacqua said. “We are pleased with our customers’ response as participants in this global event.”