SaskEnergy has reported a record-breaking natural gas demand in the province due to recent extreme cold weather.
In a release, SaskEnergy reported peak demand was on Jan. 12 with a natural gas consumption rate of 1.70 petajoules per day (PJ/d). This surpasses the previous record of 1.65 PJ/d reported two years ago on Jan. 6, 2022.
“Natural gas is essential for Saskatchewan residents as we heat our homes and businesses during the coldest days of winter,” stated Dustin Duncan, the minister responsible for SaskEnergy, in a release. “As a result of our government’s decision to remove the carbon tax from home heating, Saskatchewan families saved over $1M per day during the coldest weekend of this season.”
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SaskEnergy stated peak days, Jan. 13 and 14, hit 1.68 PJ/d and 1.66 PJ/d usage. The data recorded is based on customer usage with the main contributors being power generation and residential heating.
“At SaskEnergy we anticipate higher usage of natural gas in the colder periods of the year,” stated Mark Guillet, president and CEO of SaskEnergy. “With a 99.998 per cent reliability, our system is designed with inventory and capacity to safely provide natural gas to our customers 24 hours a day.”
SaskEnergy measures daily natural gas consumption for the 24 hours from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. A PJ is a unit of measurement equivalent to one million gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas. An average Saskatchewan home consumes about 100 GJ of natural gas each year.
As temperatures are expected to warm up a bit, SaskEnergy reminds residents when the weather gets cold, to know the top winter safety tips such as ensuring exterior vents are free of frost, ice and snow, ensuring the natural gas meter is free of snow and ice and to have your furnace inspected each year.
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