PowerStream Encourages Customers to Participate in Earth Hour 2012

VAUGHAN, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 22, 2012) - PowerStream, the electric utility which provides service to several communities located in York Region and Greater Simcoe County, is once again encouraging its customers to join the company in participating in Earth Hour 2012 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 31, 2012.

Earth Hour is a global climate change initiative run by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which calls on individuals and businesses to turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour. The aim of the campaign is to express that one individual action on a mass scale can help change the world for the better.

PowerStream will be participating in Earth Hour by powering down the lights at its three work locations in Vaughan, Markham and Barrie, reporting municipal power consumption reduction totals resulting from customer participation in Earth Hour and through sponsorship of a number of local events including the Barrie Earth Hour Music Festival, Earth Hour Vaughan featuring that municipality's annual lantern walk as well as several Earth Hour activities in the Town of Markham being held at the Markham Museum.

Barrie Earth Hour Music Festival, a free concert for all ages, will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. outside of Barrie City Hall, and will feature a mix of contemporary country and rock music. While the whole night will include musical sound, at 8:30 p.m. sharp the lights will turn out and the music will continue playing with acoustic performances from the artists. In Vaughan, activities related to Earth Hour will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Vaughan City Hall, with the annual lantern walk commencing at 8:15 p.m. The Town of Markham will be promoting Earth Hour through activities at the Markham Museum, which will include the PowerStream Conservation Demand Management (CDM) Team being onsite to promote conservation and provide information on CDM programs that are available to the utility's customers.

"As economies continue to move towards a more global focus, we should also be reminded that all of humankind is connected to the environment as well," explained Frank Scarpitti, PowerStream Board Chair and Mayor of the Town of Markham. "Earth Hour is the perfect opportunity for us to demonstrate that we can all do our part to conserve and do something positive for our planet."

"We are pleased to be participating in Earth Hour for the fifth year in a row," added Brian Bentz, President and CEO of PowerStream. "This is a global event that our customers continue to participate in by attending Earth Hour activities and reducing their electricity consumption. I am certain will see our customers this year lower their consumption levels even more compared to previous years, which will serve as a catalyst to promoting further efforts in conservation and protecting the environment."

During last year's Earth Hour event, between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on March 26, 2011, PowerStream's System Control Centre reported a service territory-wide electricity reduction of 8.9 per cent. The reduction represented a savings of 86.7 megawatts (MW) in peak demand, which is approximately enough electricity to power 2,627 average-sized homes over a 24-hour period.

More information related to Earth Hour and various Earth Hour events taking place across Canada can be found at www.wwf.ca/earthhour.

About PowerStream

PowerStream is the second largest municipally-owned electricity distribution company in Ontario, providing service to more than 335,000 customers residing or owning a business in communities located immediately north of Toronto and in Central Ontario. The communities served include Alliston, Aurora, Barrie, Beeton, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Markham, Penetanguishene, Richmond Hill, Thornton, Tottenham and Vaughan. PowerStream is jointly owned by the City of Barrie, the City of Vaughan and the Town of Markham.

About Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a global grass-roots movement encouraging individuals, businesses and governments around the world to take positive actions for the environment. Hundreds of millions of people will switch off their lights for one designated hour in a global celebration of their commitment to protect the one thing that unites us all - the planet. Earth Hour aims to display the actions that people, businesses and governments world-wide are taking to reduce their environmental impact

Earth Hour takes place on the last Saturday of March at 8:30 pm for one hour. The date in March corresponds to when turning out lights will be most visible around the globe, in terms of sunset times, thereby maximizing and ensuring the greatest visual impact for a global 'lights out' event. World Wildlife Fund helped create the first Earth Hour in Australia in 2007, to inspire people to take action against climate change. The event spread, uniting people around the world in their desire to stop climate change. Today Earth Hour asks participants to go beyond the hour of lights out and to share their commitment towards sustainable actions every day.