ATLANTA — The recent announcement that Southern Co. will purchase AGL Resources should benefit consumers, the head of Gas South told a business association this week.
“We see it as very positive from an infrastructure standpoint,” Kevin Greiner, president and CEO of Gas South, told the Buckhead Business Association (BBA) during a Thursday morning appearance. “We see it as positive from an operations standpoint. You have two very strong utility companies with excellent reputations coming together.
“That should lead to some synergies, some best practices sharing, maybe some cost savings over time,” Greiner added. “So all those things, I think, will be beneficial. And, we’ll really see gas and electricity basically compete on a level playing field. For whatever the use is, does it make more sense for natural gas, does it make sense more for electricity? And, I think overall that will be good for consumers and good for the market.”
Greiner noted that AGL is currently extending its network of pipelines to areas in north and south Georgia “so that Georgia is as well-served as possible by natural gas.” AGL operates and maintains the natural gas infrastructure in Georgia, while Gas South and other companies market natural gas to customers.
Gas South serves about 280,000 residential, business and governmental customers in Georgia and Florida, was previously owned by Southern Co. The company is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cobb EMC.
Southern Co. is buying AGL Resources for $8 billion in cash; the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2016, BloombergBusiness previously reported.
