Piedmont Holding Inc history

The sale was finalized on May 1, 1951.

The end of 1952 brought with it good fortune to the company in the form of two events: steel pipe became available from Great Britain, and Buell Duncan was hired as president.

The company made its first profit of $373,000 in 1953, more than doubling this figure the next year by earning $760,000.

In response, regulatory agencies like the Federal Power Commission (FPC), the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) and the South Carolina Public Services Commission (SCPSC) set in place gas rationing plans in 1971.

By 1978, with stock prices plummeting, Piedmont still claimed a net income of $5 million and 185,000 customers.

In 1981, PNG Energy Company purchased Gilley and Tolley Fuel Company and began to operate its coal business under the name of PNG Coal and Oil Company.

In 1982, Piedmont joined with three other utilities to call for a nationwide conference to discuss the challenges emerging in the new marketplace.

Although the following recession year witnessed a 16 percent decline in earnings, cold temperatures in 1983 reversed the downward trend as Piedmont benefitted from record-breaking consumption.

In 1994, Piedmont's subsidiary, Piedmont Energy Company, became a 51 percent partner in Resource Energy Services Company, L.L.C., which focused on providing gas acquisition, transportation, and storage services to industrial and large commercial customers in the Southeast.

In 1995, the NCUC awarded natural gas service in four North Carolina counties to newcomer Frontier Utilities over Piedmont's competing bid.

In the fall of 1998, when Georgia became the first state in the region to open its utility market to competition, SouthStar, doing business as Georgia Natural Gas Services, began marketing unregulated natural gas services to its customers.