The Canyon Consultancy, which spearheaded the Earth Hour observance campaign in Odisha, has claimed that the State saved 460 MW of electricity during ‘The Earth Hour 2014’ from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm on Saturday.
The team of ‘Earth Hour – Odisha Campaign’ comprised the TiE Bhubaneswar Cleantech SIG, Canyon Consultancy, Climate Parliament (Odisha Chapter) and other stakeholders of energy sector of the State. Going by the slogan of ‘Switch OFF non-essential light loads during Earth Hour (8:30PM to 9:30PM) and to Switch ON to renewable energy, the volunteers stood holding solar lights along the road from the AG Square to the Raj Bhavan Square here in the city. The streetlights remained switched off during the hour on the road.
The Crux Power, a Bhubaneswar-based solar energy company provided solar lights for the purpose.“In spite of increase in temperature, Odisha made a spectacular achievement of reduction of 460-MW power saving of 4.6 lakh units of electricity costing about Rs18.5 lakh,” a Press release issued by the BMC claimed. Padmashree Sudarsan Patnaik, brand ambassador of Odisha Campaign, erected a seven feet sand art in Puri for creating awareness among people to save electricity.
A mass signature campaign was also organized in various universities and colleges like IIT Bhubaneswar; National law University, Odisha, ITER, AIIMS, and Utkal University to make the Earth more fruitful.
Government buildings like the Governor House, the Secretariat, OERC, GRIDCO and OPTCl, OHPC and GEDCOl, CESU, all the police stations under the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police and all the OTDC Pantha Nivas also observed the Earth Hour.