Christmas light displays around Taiwan are not putting a burden on the country’s electricity supply because many use energy--saving LED lights and are operating at a time when demand for power is not at its peak, state-run Taiwan Power Co said yesterday.
“Christmas light bulbs are consuming relatively small amounts of power. There is no problem with the electricity supply,” Taipower spokeswoman Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元) said.
Christmas light decorations have come under fire from environmentalists, with groups in Hong Kong saying that such decorations on buildings in the Victoria Harbor area consumed enough electricity to run 330 four-person households for a year.
Tu dismissed such concerns. She said Taiwan had seen record electricity use over the summer because of a surge in the use of air conditioners to combat the heat, but that was not an issue during the winter.
Many shopping malls and local governments in Taiwan have put up colored lights on streets or on Christmas trees to mark the arrival of the Christmas season.
Citibank Taiwan, for example, worked with the Taipei City Government and the Finland Trade Center, a Taipei-based foreign trade office, to install lights on trees and on overpasses in the Xinyi (信義) shopping district in Taipei on Saturday.
The Tainan County Government also put Christmas lights in the square in front of the county government office building.
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