The summer months of 2017 in Saskatchewan will be remembered for its very warm, dry conditions and lack of precipitation in the southern regions.

Hot temperatures in July and August indicated residents would be utilizing more power -- enough to break a provincial record.

Demand for power rising as Sask. breaks summer peak power use record

On Tuesday, SaskPower announced the province exceeded the summer power use record for a third time in the past two months. The record was broken on Monday at approximately 4:30 PM where 3,470 megawatts (MW) was in use by the province.

The new record surpassed the original record set at 3,419 on July 27, 2017 and 3,360 MW on July 10, 2017. Before these new peaks, no record had been broken since 3,331 MW set in July 2015.

The increase of 139 megawatts between the July 2015 number compared to the new peak represents power use of nearly 140,000 homes.

Tips from SaskPower to save money on your power bills

Cooling and heating represents approximately a quarter of residential power bills. To reduce consumption and power bills during heat waves, SaskPower’s customers can turn down (or program) the air conditioning when no one is home.

For every degree that air conditioning is lowered for an eight-hour period, customers can save up to two per cent on their power costs.

Customers may also consider having their air conditioning unit inspected to make sure they run efficiently.

More power-saving tips are available here.

 

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