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SaskEnergy came close to end of supply over frigid winter

Jun 2, 2014 | 1:51 PM

Constant, frigid temperatures had natural gas usage at a record high in Saskatchewan over the winter of 2014, bringing SaskEnergy close to the end of its supply.

“We do design our system around a one in 30 winter,” said Dave Burdeniuk, director of communications with SaskEnergy. “What's the worst possible winter you can get in 30 years? And this winter came pretty close.”

While the Crown was never in danger of running completely out of natural gas, Burdeniuk explained how SaskEnergy piped in more gas and even interrupted services to some businesses. Five out of more than 100 industrial customers had their contracts curtailed, but only companies with an interruptible contract as opposed to a firm, or guarantee, contract.

“We still provided them with enough natural gas for minimal heat, so there wasn't any type of damage to their facilities.”

There were some companies in the mining sector that offered to cut back on natural gas usage to give SaskEnergy some extra support. Burdeniuk said they didn't end up having to do that.

He also said the Crown learned from the experience.

“By next winter we'll have more capacity in our system than what we had this winter, and this winter we had more capacity than we had last year, so we keep growing as the demand grows.”

SaskEnergy is already ordering in more mobile compressors and increasing the safety and maintenance budget for the upcoming winter.

“We don't want to say that this past winter was just a blip. What if this is the way winters are for the next five years? We want to keep growing with that.”

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