Photos courtesy of Post Today and Bangkok Post
A campaign that encouraged people to turn off lights and electrical appliances for one hour on a Saturday night saved more than 6 million baht in electricity costs.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about this environmentally friendly event.
The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) claimed success in saving as much as 6.7 million baht in electricity costs during a one-hour shutdown of lights in Bangkok on the night of March 29.
Entitled 60+ Earth Hour 2014, the annual campaign aims to inspire householders to cut energy consumption, MEA official Somsak Triyanurak said on March 29.
BIG SAVINGS
From 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm on Saturday March 29, the capital used 1,768 megawatts less than the peak hour of energy use recorded on May 16 last year, when Bangkok consumed 5,841 megawatts, according to Somsak.
Somsak said that the drop in energy consumption was equivalent to a drop in electricity bills totaling 6.7 million baht. The drop in electricity use during the one-hour campaign also meant a decrease in approximately 947 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which means a lot in terms of dealing with global warming, Somsak added.
GLOBAL EVENT
The energy-saving campaign is jointly carried out by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Foundation for Environmental Education for Sustainable Development. Every year, Bangkok, along with other large cities around the world takes part in this energy-saving activity in which householders are encouraged to switch off lights and other electric appliances for one hour.
The idea started out as a lights-off event in Australia in 2007. Since then it has grown into a global phenomenon.
Exercises
Read through Exercises. Then, decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. Entitled 60+ Earth Hour 2014 was held on a Saturday night in late March.
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2. The Metropolitan Electricity Authority succeeded in saving approximately 6.7 million baht in electricity costs on the night of March 29.
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3. This story was originally published in Post Today.
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4. Somsak Triyanurak works for the MEA.
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Vocabulary
- timely (adj): happening at exactly the right time
householder (n): a person who owns or rents the house that they live in
megawatt (n): a unit for measuring electrical power
carbon dioxide (v): a gas breathed out by people and animals from the lungs or produced by burning carbon
