Cold weather in Yukon drives record breaking power use

Yukon broke itsall-time record for electricity consumed at any one time on Monday evening.

Yukon Energy spokesperson Janet Patterson says it happened at 5:53 p.m when people were making dinner.

Temperatures were also in the minus 30s and 40s across the territory and many people heat their homes with electricity.

She says the power corporation was generating 83.69 megawatts at that point. That broke the previous record of 83.43 megawatts set on Dec. 18, 2013.

Patterson says 12.4 megawatts of last night's generation came from diesel-fuelledgenerators.

Most of the territory's power comes from hydroelectric dams. The diesel generators on the main power grid kick in when the hydro power can't keep up with the demand.

Patterson says last night's surge in demand on a cold night at dinner time cost an extra $4,340 for just that one hour.

The diesel generators were running again Tuesday morning during the breakfast hours.

She says Yukon Energy is asking people to keep their non-essential power usage to a minimum.