Superior Energy Systems reflects on 50 years in business

Superior Energy Systems, a family-owned designer and installer of propane infrastructure, including midstream terminals, bulk and industrial plants and propane autogas refueling equipment, is assessing propane industry similarities and challenges over a half century as it celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025.

President and CEO Donald Fernald started a company called Plant Systems on July 4, 1975, in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, and later moved it to Columbia Station, outside Cleveland. In 2002, Fernald sold Plant Systems to Superior Energy Systems, then bought that company two years later. Today, Fernald co-owns the company with his son-in-law, Derek Rimko, who serves as vice president of operations. Rimko joined Plant Systems under Fernald in 1993.

“Superior Energy Systems has been successful for so long because it places a heavy emphasis on service, engineering, technology and employees,” Fernald says. “Our company has loyal, experienced people who are highly invested in the propane industry and do a wonderful job of passing down information from one generation to the next.”

Fernald says the propane industry faced important challenges when he started Plant Systems. At the time, there was a natural gas shortage, and unlike today, there was relatively little drilling activity. This provided his firm with a unique opportunity to build dedicated and standby propane backup systems, which mimicked natural gas energy; the company still installs these systems today for customers facing natural gas curtailment or no natural gas accessibility. Over the past 15 years, propane challenges prompted the company to design and install strategically located midstream propane terminals nationwide, an initiative it continues to expand today.

In the 1970s and 1980s, several fuel-related incidents prompted Fernald and the late Bill Young, an LP Gas Hall of Famer who worked for Superior Energy Systems for over 40 years, to begin to play a key role in training and safety programs related to propane, including the development of the National Fire Protection Association 58 standard. Today, the company participates in industry initiatives by holding leadership positions in the National Fire Protection Association, Canadian Standards Association, Underwriters Laboratory, Propane Education & Research Council, National Propane Gas Association and multiple state propane associations.

Today’s challenges may be technologically advanced comparatively but similar in that they are forcing the propane industry to grapple with what’s next, according to the company. For example, Fernald says one big opportunity is serving the artificial intelligence (AI) market by providing propane power for AI data centers and a continuous commitment to advancing propane autogas technology.

Superior Energy Systems also continues to build propane storage facilities of all sizes throughout the country, and manufacture and install portable transloaders, to aid in testing new propane markets or act as a temporary supply solution.

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