A new record for daily natural gas consumption in the province was set last weekend as a direct result of continued extreme temperatures, along with high natural gas consumption and new customer growth. In the 24-hour period from December 6th to 7th, TransGas, the natural gas transmission subsidiary of SaskEnergy, delivered 1.24 PetaJoules (PJ) of natural gas to its customers. This is a five per cent increase over the previous record of 1.18 PJ/day, which was set on January 18th, 2012.
A PetaJoule is a unit of measurement equivalent to one million GigaJoules of natural gas - the average home in Saskatchewan consumes about 109 GigaJoules of natural gas annually.
The SaskEnergy/TransGas system is designed to withstand even the coldest Saskatchewan winters, and is built to operate in the worst possible conditions. During peak winter demand, TransGas' 26 underground natural gas storage caverns and two storage fields around the province supply nearly 50 per cent of the natural gas used by homes, businesses and industry.
Record-setting and near record-setting usage days are happening more frequently as SaskEnergy continues to add more new customers than ever before. Since the previous record was set, SaskEnergy has added close to 14,000 new customers - homes, businesses and industry - to its distribution system.
SaskEnergy's system is designed around this increased growth, ensuring additional capacity so that even on peak record days the system is able to provide more natural gas than required.
SaskEnergy/TransGas employees work throughout the year to inspect, maintain and upgrade the province's natural gas system so that it can operate safely and efficiently regardless of the weather conditions. The system is continuously monitored to ensure no major outages occur during periods of extreme cold.
