2025 LP Gas Growth Summit: PERC director urges propane growth amid electric grid concerns

At the 10th LP Gas Growth Summit in Orlando, Florida, attendees were treated to a presentation from Bert Warner, director of commercial business development at the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC).

The presentation underscored the many diverse opportunities for gallon growth available to the propane industry. Warner covered everything from combined heat and power to electric grid resilience (or lack thereof).

▶ Grid strain means new opportunity

Warner references a recent report from the Department of Energy on the security of the U.S. electric grid.

Highlights of the report include:

• The status quo is unsustainable.
• Grid growth must keep pace with artificial intelligence (AI) innovation.
• Grid reliability is at risk.

“The DOE just put out a report recently telling us we’re in trouble,” he explains. “We cannot continue business as usual.”

Resiliency and reliability have emerged as top priorities for the industry, Warner says, as the U.S. grid strains under electrification efforts, surging demand from data centers and AI.

“The electrification efforts of the last few years have really put a strain on the grid, and then the explosive growth of AI and data centers and these other power-hungry entities are already trying to eat at the buffet when there’s limited food,” he says. “And so that’s where we can come in with an unlimited supply of bacon. Propane is bacon, really, if you think about it.”

Today, there is a great opportunity for the propane industry to step in and provide reliable electricity to Americans – and at a favorable cost, too.

▶ The price of power

Warner illustrates that, in many states, generating electricity with propane can generate significant cost savings.

Warner presented an equation to illustrate the potential cost savings of propane into electricity: “One gallon of propane is equal to 27 kilowatt [hours].” Essentially, 1 gallon of propane can produce 27 kilowatt hours of electricity. With that in mind, a retailer can take the average price of electricity per kilowatt hour in their state and multiply it by 27 – that gets you the cost of 27 kilowatt hours of power that you would get from the electric grid. Compare that to the average cost per gallon of propane in your state, and you’ll often see a significant price difference.”

By Warner’s calculations, propane is more cost-effective than electricity in many markets, citing a $1.10 per-gallon difference in Texas, a $2.23 per-gallon difference in Indiana and a $6.61 difference in California.

Altogether, the electric grid’s unreliability and propane’s affordability make power generation propane’s “biggest growth opportunity,” Warner says.

“A backup generator was a luxury. It’s not anymore,” he adds. “It’s a necessity.”

▶ Combined heat and power, cooling

Going beyond standard power generation, Warner also spoke about combined heat and power (CHP) and even propane cooling systems.

Warner explained CHP at a base level as “a boiler that makes electricity.” Essentially, the system is using propane to generate both electricity and heat, which is often used for hot water.

CHP is a growing opportunity for the U.S. propane industry, with a 7 percent annual growth rate in the United States, with much of it concentrated in colder areas and areas with inconsistent electrical power.

Warner also introduced what seems to be an oxymoron at first – propane cooling.

“This is a real thing you can do,” he says. “You can provide cooling to your customers using propane as your energy source.”

While it is certainly a less well-known segment, even among those in attendance at the Growth Summit, Warner says propane cooling has been around since the 1960s.

“It’s not a prototype,” Warner says. “Just because we haven’t heard of it doesn’t mean it hasn’t existed, and the need for it is now.”

Propane cooling provides many of the same benefits as propane power generation – grid relief, resiliency, reduced carbon intensity and affordability, to name a few.

▶ Year-round growth

Power generation. CHP. Propane cooling. Warner believes these are some of the major opportunities that the industry needs to jump on to achieve growth.

“Year-round gallon growth, right? That’s what we want to happen,” he says. “Have business in July and August and all these off months. That’s the white whale of the industry.”

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