New provincial record set for gas consumption

A new record has been set in Saskatchewan, beating a previous record that was set a little more than a year ago.

In a release, SaskEnergy announced a new record of 1.57 petajoules (PJ) was set Tuesday. The previous record of 1.55 PJ was set on Jan. 15, 2020.

One petajoule is equivalent to one million gigajoules. For reference, the average Canadian household uses 100 gigajoules of energy per year.

“This is the eighth winter in a row that the usage record has been matched or exceeded,” SaskEnergy wrote in a release. “Record-setting natural gas usage days are happening due to residential, business and industrial customer growth — including increasing natural gas use for power production in Saskatchewan.

“SaskEnergy’s pipeline system is designed to accommodate this increased growth, ensuring additional capacity so that, even on peak record days, the system is able to provide more natural gas than required.”