New natural gas usage record set in Saskatchewan

Extreme cold weather and customer growth are cited as reasons why a new natural gas usage record was set in Saskatchewan.

SaskEnergy said 1.56 PetaJoules (PJ) was used over a 24-hour period between Jan. 15 and Jan. 16. Daily consumption numbers are tracked between 9 a.m. and 9 a.m.

This broke the one-day record of 1.54 PJs which was set the previous day, officials said.

SaskEnergy said the record was set due to high natural gas consumption by its customers and increased natural gas use for power production in the province.

The high in Regina on Wednesday was -28 C and in Saskatoon, it was -29 C.

A PetaJoule is a unit of measurement equivalent to one million GigaJoules (GJ) of natural gas.

The average home in Saskatchewan uses about 100 GJ of natural gas annually.

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