SaskEnergy is reporting that the daily natural gas consumption in the province today has surpassed the previous usage record, set in January of last year.
Daily usage records are tracked over a 24-hour period, from 9 a.m. until 9 a.m., said a press release from the Crown, with the period from Feb. 8-9 reaching a new high for Saskatchewan.
Records are showing that on Feb. 9, the province reached a new daily consumption record of 1.57 petajoules (PJ) of natural gas, an increase over the previous record of 1.55 PJ set on Jan. 15, 2020.
A petajoule of natural gas is equivalent to one million gigajoules (GJ). For perspective, SaskEnergy shared that the average home in Saskatchewan consumes about 100 GJ of natural gas annually.
This is the eighth year in a row that the province’s daily usage record has been matched or succeeded during the winter, an increase SaskEnergy says is due to growth in residential, business and industrial consumers.
The increase of using natural gas for power production is also playing a part, said the Crown.
SaskEnergy assured customers that the pipeline system and infrastructure is designed to accommodate this level of increased growth, with additional capacity available so that the system is able to keep up with demand on peak usage days.
Employees are also monitoring the system to manage peak demand situations, including winter weather conditions like the cold snap the province is currently experiencing.
