Finns’ energy consumption dipped slightly on Saturday night between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. when lights went out across the country during the worldwide Earth Hour campaign for global climate change.
Manager of power system operation planning Timo Kaukonen of Fingrid, the Finnish national electricity transmission grid operator, estimated that the decrease in consumption on the system amounted to about 100 megawatt-hours.
The amount is roughly equal to the power requirements of a city of 30,000 inhabitants during one hour, in other words the electricity consumption of households in small Finnish cities like Rauma, Järvenpää, Kerava, or Kajaani.
Earth Hour is a global event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to switch off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.
