Do your bit for Earth Hour

TNB workers dropping in their forms, pledging to save energy, during the campaign launch at Wisma TNB in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur.

KUALA LUMPUR: Earth Hour starts at 8.30pm today and Tenaga Nasional Bhd hopes Malaysians will put into action what they have learned about energy-saving.

This is because despite the large number of awareness campaigns about saving electricity, fewer people are putting it into practice each year.

TNB corporate affairs and communications vice-president Adelina Iskandar hopes the trend will be reversed this year and a bigger dip in electricity demand be recorded tonight.

Earth Hour is an annual worldwide event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for an hour to raise awareness about the need to act on climate change.

The event, started in 2007, is observed in 152 countries.

Adelina said that during the Earth Hour in 2009, there was a 6% (306MW) drop in electricity usage.

Last year, however, the drop was less than 1%, which is a mere 105MW.

Addelina added that the electricity saved had gradually decreased since 2009, with TNB recording 2% (203MW) that year, and 1% (113MW) in each subsequent year.

“Malaysians cannot just make pledges to conserve energy during Earth Hour.

“Your pledges must be executed because it is only then that awareness is translated into action,” she said after launching the TNB-WWF Malaysia Earth Hour 2013 awareness campaign here yesterday.

She said Malaysians could easily decrease their electricity use by adopting long-term greener habits.

These, she said, included buying five-star rated energy saving appliances, switching off unnecessary lighting and appliances as well as minimising water usage.

She urged people to try to live without creature comforts unnecessary in Malaysia's tropical climate.

“Many of our habits have been formed from watching commercials.

“We feel as though we need a comforter to sleep at night. Then when we feel hot, we turn the air-conditioner on at 16°C.

“In the morning we need hot water to shower because we feel cold,” she said, stressing that reducing energy and water consumption would have a positive effect on demand management.

WWF-Malaysia conservation director Dr Sundari Ramakrishnan was glad TNB was collaborating with the organisation to drive the Earth Hour momentum for the second year running.

Source: The Star