LNG peak-shaving and import facilities

Chart Industries (NYSE: GTLS; Ball Ground, GA; ~$4B revenue post-Howden) is the world's dominant manufacturer of cryogenic equipment for LNG, including peak-shaving plant liquefiers, brazed aluminum heat exchangers (BAHX), cold boxes, storage tanks, and LNG vaporizers. Chart's Industrial & Commercial Energy (ICE) division is the primary vendor for utility LNG peak-shaving plant equipment in North America. Chart acquired Howden (Glasgow-based industrial compressor and fan manufacturer) in 2023 for $4.4B, adding compression technology to its cryogenic heat exchanger and storage portfolio — making Chart a near-complete LNG equipment systems integrator. Chart also produces the CAIRE/MVE biomedical cryogenic cylinders and acquired La Crosse Cooler and other brands. The La Crosse, WI cryogenic division manufactures vacuum-insulated storage vessels. Chart is the single most critical equipment supplier for US utility LNG peak-shaving — if a New England utility needs to expand or replace a peak-shaving liquefier, Chart is essentially the only qualified domestic source.

Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE: APD; Allentown, PA; ~$12B revenue) licenses the APCI (Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.) natural gas liquefaction process technology used in many small- and mid-scale LNG liquefaction trains worldwide, including utility peak-shaving plants. The APCI propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant (C3MR) process dominates large baseload LNG export trains globally (used in >90% of world's baseload LNG capacity), but Air Products also licenses adapted cycles for smaller peak-shaving applications. Air Products competes with Linde Engineering for small-scale liquefaction process technology licensing. Air Products is also the world's largest industrial gas producer, supplying nitrogen and other gases used in LNG facility construction and purging.

Linde Engineering (part of Linde plc; NYSE/FRA: LIN; Dublin, Ireland; HQ Pullach Germany for engineering division; ~$34B revenue) designs and delivers small-scale LNG liquefaction plants using Linde's proprietary LIMUM (Linde Mixed reFrigerant Updated Modular) and other natural gas liquefaction cycles. Linde Engineering has built multiple LNG peak-shaving plants and distributed LNG liquefaction facilities in the US and Europe. Linde is one of just three technology licensors (with Air Products and Shell SEAP) that control the majority of global LNG process technology. Linde Engineering's LNG reference list includes utility peak-shaving plants in the US Northeast and Europe, and LNG satellite and virtual pipeline systems.

National Grid plc (NYSE: NGG; London, UK; ~£18B revenue) is the operator of major gas and electricity distribution networks in the United Kingdom and the northeastern United States. National Grid's US gas distribution subsidiary — National Grid USA, primarily serving Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York — operates multiple LNG peak-shaving facilities in Massachusetts that are critical to winter natural gas supply. Massachusetts LNG peak-shaving plants operated by National Grid represent some of the largest LNG storage and vaporization assets in the US Northeast. National Grid Massachusetts stores approximately 10 billion cubic feet equivalent of LNG in its peak-shaving facilities, used to meet extreme cold-weather demand spikes when Algonquin and Tennessee Gas pipeline imports are insufficient. National Grid also operates LNG in New York (Long Island).

New Fortress Energy (Nasdaq: NFE; New York, NY; ~$1.5B revenue) is a global LNG infrastructure company that acquired the Everett LNG terminal (Everett, MA) from Eversource Energy in 2020. The Everett Marine Terminal — also known historically as the Distrigas terminal — is the only active LNG import terminal on the US East Coast, operating since 1971. New Fortress Energy operates the terminal to receive LNG tankers from Trinidad, Algeria, and other sources, and then delivers LNG and natural gas by pipeline to New England utilities. The Everett terminal's single marine berth can receive only one LNG tanker at a time; scheduled tanker deliveries (typically weekly during winter) are the sole LNG import pathway for New England when pipeline capacity is constrained. New Fortress Energy also develops LNG infrastructure in Latin America, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and other markets.

Constellation Energy Corporation (Nasdaq: CEG; Baltimore MD; spun off from Exelon in 2022) is the largest US nuclear power operator, producing approximately 10% of US electricity from 21 nuclear power plants (~32,000 MW capacity). Fleet includes Byron, Braidwood, Calvert Cliffs, Clinton, Dresden, Ginna, Hope Creek, LaSalle, Limerick, Nine Mile Point, Peach Bottom, Quad Cities, and Three Mile Island (restarted September 2023 under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft specifically for data center power in the mid-Atlantic grid — the first ever single-company restart of a nuclear reactor driven by hyperscaler AI power demand).