2 min read January 2023 — Gas South sees a bright future in its core natural gas marketing business and its emerging initiatives in renewable energy. The company is now providing renewable natural gas sourced from agricultural waste and landfills and owns solar projects. “We are on the road toward investing $50 million in community solar projects by the end of 2023,” Kevin Greiner, the company’s president and CEO, told Invest:.
What have been the major highlights or milestones for your company over the past year?
I think 2022 has been characterized by higher energy prices with higher volatility in the market. Some of that has been brought about by the huge demand for natural gas coming from Europe amid the disruption in Russian supply. We also experienced a pretty hot summer. We’ve been active in helping to connect natural gas producers with consumers to meet the additional demand for natural gas. We are also meeting the needs of our retail customer base. It has been a super busy year for us, but one we are proud of. We’ve invested a great deal in a lot of our systems, processes and people to be able to manage the growth that the company has experienced over the last couple of years.
What is the key challenge that you are strategizing around right now?
One key industry challenge is the lack of overall investment in the country in interstate pipeline capacity. Even though demand for natural gas is growing, we haven’t built a lot of additional infrastructure over many years. From a supply chain standpoint, gas producers are experiencing a lot of the same issues that other companies are experiencing, whether that be in labor or materials shortages or logistics issues with transporting natural gas through congested interstate pipelines.
What are the key opportunities you see in the energy sector now?
There’s a huge opportunity in the renewable energy space. There’s a lot of opportunity in the conventional natural gas area as well. One of the attributes that makes natural gas a special fuel is how well it pairs with renewables. We’re big believers in the future of natural gas; there’s no better fuel source for heating, cooking, drying, and generating electricity. So, we believe that demand for natural gas will continue to grow at the industrial, commercial and residential levels. We are fortunate in Georgia that we have modern utility infrastructure, and we serve customers through local distribution systems managed by Atlanta Gas Light, one of the country’s best gas utilities. There has also been a tremendous effort to expand access to natural gas throughout the state to spur economic growth. We are well positioned here in Georgia and within the Atlanta region for access to relatively low-priced and highly reliable energy.
How has the demand shifted in recent years?
The number of homes and businesses using natural gas continues to grow. We see that broad-based growth across all sectors of the economy. There’s a strong commitment to natural gas here in Georgia that is supported by a constructive regulatory and pro-growth business climate. We also have a strong commitment to renewable energy in Georgia. We are the ninth largest state for solar energy. We also have a very high potential for renewable natural gas, which is in essence natural gas that is coming from agricultural and waste sources. And that gas can be captured and re-injected into the natural gas pipeline as a blend with conventional natural gas. Georgia is deemed to be the fifth best market in terms of potential for renewable gas, which we think will be an increasing part of our energy mix in the future.
How have you seen technology become more innovative or influential in your industry sector?
We continue to see great innovation in the renewable energy space. We are on the road toward investing $50 million in community solar projects by the end of 2023. We’ve been investing in community-based solar energy projects in Minnesota and Colorado. We also have an offer that we rolled out just this year called Flex RNG, which allows our commercial and industrial customers to obtain a portion of their natural gas from us in the form of renewable energy.
What has been the result of the acquisition of Infinite Energy?
We’re fortunate to operate in some of the highest-growth markets in the country, such as Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Texas. The acquisition of Infinite Energy at the end of 2020 took the company to a whole different level. We’re going to be a $2 billion revenue company this year, which is five times what we were in 2020. We’re now a leading retailer serving customers in competitive natural gas markets and also have a large wholesale business supplying natural gas to power plants, municipal gas systems and liquified natural gas terminals. It’s been our goal to get to that scale.
How have you managed the labor shortage challenges?
It’s a tighter market for talent, but thankfully, we have not had a lot of struggles with finding great people. Atlanta has ample talent and we’re fortunate to be well-recognized as a company that provides great career opportunities.
What is that general outlook for Gas South over the next two or three years?
We’ve grown so much over the last couple of years that we are working to ensure that our systems, our processes and our people are up to the challenge of managing an expanded customer base and a much larger business. We’re continuing to look at ways that we can invest to ensure that we’re able to serve our customers effectively.
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