Whether you’re a South Jersey Gas or Elizabethtown Gas customer, chances are one of those subsidiaries provides your home or a local business in your town with natural gas.

But what exactly is natural gas, and why does this fuel play a vital role in daily life and our state’s energy future?

Let’s find out.

What Is Natural Gas?

First and foremost, natural gas is a naturally occurring resource found beneath our planet’s surface. It’s a colorless and odorless fuel composed mostly of methane that forms from the remains of plants and animals. 

Natural gas is a highly efficient fuel source that burns cleaner than coal or oil, making it an optimal energy source for heating or cooking. 

According to the American Gas Association, natural gas is 3.5 times more affordable than electricity and planned or unplanned natural gas outages only affect about 1 in 650 natural gas customers annually. Natural gas is also the most commonly used heating fuel source for residential customers, with about 72% of New Jersey households relying on it to safely heat their homes, according to the U. S. Energy Information Administration.

 

Delivering Natural Gas, The Smart Way

At SJI, we’re committed to delivering natural gas to our over 730,000 customers responsibly. 

This includes modernizing our natural gas infrastructure to reduce emissions and improve reliability, and deploying new smart technology like CISBOT, a robotic system used by Elizabethtown Gas to upgrade underground gas lines with minimal disruption in that service area. Our system improvement efforts across our utilities focus on enhancing the safety, reliability and resiliency of our natural gas systems. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved several capital investment programs in the past ten years to modernize the South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas distribution systems. These include the South Jersey Gas Infrastructure Investment Program (IIP) and the Elizabethtown Gas Infrastructure Investment Program (IIP). 

Natural Gas’ Future

At SJI, we’re proud to provide our customers with the energy they need today while investing in the innovations that will fuel tomorrow. 

One such innovation is the utilization of compressed natural gas (CNG), an alternative to gasoline or diesel fuel. SJI has over 220 compressed natural gas vehicles in its fleet and continues to support the expansion of fueling stations located within the South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas service territories. 

Through SJI Renewable Energy Ventures, a non-utility subsidiary of SJI that specializes in the ownership, development, construction and operation of diverse renewable energy projects, we’re investing in projects like the Linden Renewable Energy (LRE) project that will expand our energy footprint by converting organic waste into renewable natural gas.

Through energy investments, infrastructure enhancements, and technological innovations, SJI is committed to promoting sustainability, driving innovation and strives to lead the way towards a cleaner energy future for our State and region.

Want to learn more about how natural gas fits into a cleaner energy future? Visit sjindustries.com.