SaskEnergy says its record for natural gas usage in a single day was just broken.
The Crown corporation’s highest daily gas consumption is now 1.57 petajoules (PJ), which tracked from 9 a.m. on Monday to 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
Meteorologist Peter Quinlan said, in Saskatoon, the average temperature for the recent 24-hour period was -33 degrees.
Usage set on Tuesday surpassed the previous record set on Jan. 15, 2020, at 1.55 PJ. According to Quinlan, the average temperature was -34.2 degrees on Jan. 15, 2020.
SaskEnergy said a petajoule is equivalent to one million gigajoules (GJ), with the average home in the province consuming roughly 100 GJ of natural gas a year.
“(The province’s natural gas delivery) system is monitored 24 hours a day to manage peak demand situations such as the winter weather conditions Saskatchewan has been experiencing,” read a press release on Tuesday.
“Record-setting natural gas usage days are happening due to residential, business and industrial customer growth … Even on peak record days, the system is able to provide more natural gas than required.”
This is the eighth consecutive winter that the usage record has been matched or broken, according to the press release.
According to Environment Canada on Tuesday, the arctic ridge of high pressure that has allowed for a very cold air mass to settle over southern Saskatchewan will remain over the Prairies for much of the next week.
For the latest conditions and warnings, download the SkyTracker weather app.