Bitterly cold temperatures have played a part in Saskatchewan setting a new record for power usage in the province.

At around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, customers used 3,379 megawatts of power.

Tyler Hopson with SaskPower says one megawatt is roughly enough to power approximately 1,000 homes.

Hopson says that besides the weather, there are a couple of other reasons for the spike.

The first is the time of day that the record was broken, when people are mostly getting home from work and turning on appliances and electronics.

He says it's also due to overall economic growth in the province, and population growth year over year.