Released on November 22, 2010
SaskEnergy established a customer service milestone today, when it connected its 350,000th Saskatchewan customer at a new housing development under construction in southeast Regina. This is the highest customer base ever for the Crown natural gas utility, with more than 4,000 new residential, business and industrial customers added during the 2010 construction season.
"This is an exciting milestone for our province, as it shows our economy continues to grow and expand, with SaskEnergy supporting new homes and businesses construction in more than 300 Saskatchewan communities," Minister responsible for SaskEnergy Dustin Duncan said. "As more people move to Saskatchewan, and more businesses invest in our cities, towns, farms and First Nations, our Crowns play an important role in providing the infrastructure for growth. Since 2007, SaskEnergy has added almost 20,000 new customers at an annual rate more than double the Corporation's 10-year average."
Saskatchewan's natural gas system first began operating on October 20, 1952, serving 290 customers in the communities of Brock and Kindersley with 14 kilometres of distribution pipeline and 26 kilometres of transmission pipeline.
Today SaskEnergy operates 67,000 kilometres of distribution and 14,000 kilometres of transmission pipeline, serving 350,000 residential, business and industrial customers in more than 92 per cent of Saskatchewan communities. The corporation's natural gas distribution delivery rates are currently the lowest in Canada.
"This was an extremely challenging construction year because of all the wet weather throughout the spring, summer and early fall, but I want to recognize the outstanding work done by SaskEnergy's construction crews, along with our private sector partners in expanding our natural gas pipeline system to meet the needs of our customers across Saskatchewan," SaskEnergy President and CEO Doug Kelln said.
Kelln said SaskEnergy continues to deploy SaskEnergy construction crews, as well as contracted private sector crews, throughout the province, and expects to connect many more new customers over the winter months. SaskEnergy is projecting another strong year of customer growth in 2011, and is already working on new customer service quotes for next year's construction season.
-30-
For more information, contact:
Kathy Young
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0425
Email: kathy.young@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-526-8927
Dave Burdeniuk
SaskEnergy
Regina
Phone: 306-777-9842
Email: dburdeniuk@saskenergy.com
Cell: 306-535-6569