The heat wave in the province is helping SaskPower to set new records for summer demand this week.
At 5:22 p.m. on Wednesday, the demand for electricity reached 3,551 megawatts. The previous record was 3,547 megawatts, set on June 30th of last year.
“Saskatchewan is no stranger to extreme temperatures, and with every new demand record set, SaskPower continues to provide stable, reliable power for our customers,” said Kory Hayko, Vice President of Transmission and Industrial Services at SaskPower, in a press release Friday morning. “We have a number of protocols and contingencies in place to ensure that throughout this current heatwave, SaskPower’s system will deliver the power our customers need.”
The peak saw around 260 MW of power generation coming from wind facilities, and 8 MW from solar facilities. SaskPower also indicated they had enough reserves in case of higher demand. That higher demand is expected in the coming days, as the temperatures are expected to stay well above normal through the weekend.
The all-time demand record for SaskPower came on December 30th of last year, when it reached 3,910 MW.