Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/329751
WAYS TO SAVE Thanks to the efforts of residential and business customers, B.C. saves enough to power 440,000 homes a year. 5 • Turn down the thermostat when you go to bed and anytime you leave the house – use a programmable thermostat so you'll never forget. • Turn off the heat-dry mode on your dishwasher, and let your dishes air dry instead. Advances in technology have made appliances and electronics a lot more efficient, but the best way to lower your energy consumption is to adopt energy- saving habits. Remember to: • Turn off the light when you leave the room. • Wash your clothes in cold water, and hang them to dry when you can. BCHYDRO.COM/25 programmable thermostat so you'll never forget. • Turn off the heat-dry mode on your dishwasher, and let your dishes air dry BCHYDRO.COM/25 in working with authorities who set minimum energy performance standards on energy- consuming products. You may have heard that by the end of this year, the Government of Canada will phase out sales of inefficient 40- and 60- watt light bulbs. Power Smart has helped support this transition over the years by working closely with light bulb manufacturers and retail stores to promote CFLs and LEDs with advertising, rebates and in-store displays to ensure that adequate supplies of efficient products are available to consumers. "We are in a unique position as marketers," says Power Smart senior marketing manager Jim Nelson. "Our job is to convince customers to use less of something, not more. My team is passionate about improving the lives and business performance of our customers by helping them to save and become more efficient." WHY CONSERVATION MATTERS Although we're fortunate to have clean energy sources here in B.C., big hydroelectric generating stations are expensive to build and maintain. And as the province's population grows, our generating stations are reaching capacity. BC Hydro anticipated this back in the '80s, and launched the Power Smart program in 1989 to help people lower their consumption and stave off the growing demand for power – thereby delaying the need to spend billions of dollars on an additional power source. That's how BC Hydro has been able to maintain some of the lowest energy rates in North America. Power Smart began with the goal of saving enough energy to power 360,000 homes by 2010. Mission accomplished. Thanks to the efforts of residential and business customers, B.C. saves enough annually to power 440,000 homes – that's every home on Vancouver Island, the North Coast and the Cariboo put together. Without those savings, BC Hydro would have had to come up with additional power equivalent to building a dam with a six-turbine generating station years ago. Instead, BC Hydro has proposed that the next big build required – the Site C Clean Energy Project – will be in service by 2025. The math is simple. It will take an average of $1.7 billion a year over the next decade to build and maintain existing generating stations, transmission lines and other infrastructure to meet the demand for power in B.C. By contrast, reducing growth in demand by advocating con- servation – Power Smart programs, incentives and education that help customers cut costs – is pretty inexpensive and cost effective. For more information visit bchydro.com/25 • Hook up your TV, game console and other electronics to a power bar, and turn it off when you're not using them.