Electricity consumption dropped by 100,000KWh in Dubai during the city’s first Earth Hour on Saturday as residents and businesses across the city switched off non-essential lighting.

At 8pm local time, thousands of individual participants turned off lights and appliances for the 60-minute event that swept around the globe in what was possibly the world's largest voluntary power outage since the invention of the light bulb.

Electricity savings of 100,000 KWh, during the Earth Hour, prevented the emission of 60,000kg of carbon dioxide, according to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa). The reduction in electrical demand was 75MW, representing 2.4 per cent of the demand before Earth Hour began.

'Dewa was keen to participate with other Dubai organisations and residents marking the Earth Hour, reflecting the importance accorded to the environment in the Dubai 2015 strategy', said Saeed M. Al Tayer, Dewa CEO.

'Although this is the first time Dubai has taken part in this celebration, the saving in power which was achieved indicates we can do without some of the energy we use. We hope to achieve higher savings next year, with larger numbers joining us in marking this hour,' he added.

Earth Hour was launched in Dubai when the exterior lights of the Burj Al Arab and its neighbouring hotels Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Madinat Jumerah and Al Qasr were switched off.

The power down also signaled the start of a Lantern Parade involving up to 5,000 people along a section of Dubai’s Beach Road.

At the same time, all over the city, prominent buildings embraced darkness, individuals turned off non essential lights and lit candles or used flash lights during Earth Hour and street lighting in selected areas was dimmed by 50 per cent.

In addition to Dewa, the companies, government departments and organisations that supported Earth Hour in Dubai included du, Standard Chartered Bank, Hilton Hotels Middle East and Africa, Dubai Holding and its entities, Dubai Municipality, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Leo Burnett, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai World, Nakheel, Citibank, Hewlett Packard and Emirates Environmental Group.

'We are really happy with the result, but Earth Hour wasn't ever going to be about the (electricity) results,” said Kamal Dimachkie from the Dubai office of Leo Burnett, the creative agency behind the initial Earth Hour, in Sydney.

'It's about getting people committed to be more energy efficient all year round,” he noted.

Dubai was the first Arab city to declare support for Earth Hour. It joined with more than 380 towns and cities and 3,500 businesses in 35 countries that had signed up for the campaign that is in its second year after it began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia's largest city.

Up to 30 million people across the globe were expected to have turned off their lights for 60 minutes by the time the climate change initiative - which started in Suva in Fiji and Christchurch in New Zealand on Saturday - completed its cycle westward.-TradeArabia News Service