First Electric Cooperative wasn't the first electric cooperative ever formed, but it was the first such entity created in its home state. The member-owned utility distributes power to more than 85,000 customers in 17 central and southeastern Arkansas counties. It also offers its members a range of energy products and value-added services, including energy efficient Marathon water heaters, surge and lightning protection equipment, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. Some 72% of the cooperative's revenues come from residential customers; commercial and industrial customers account for another 20%, and the rest comes from such sources as irrigation and street lighting.

Public Utility District No. 1 of Clark County (Clark Public Utilities) provides utility services to residents and businesses in Clark County, Washington. Clark Public Utilities transmits and distributes electricity to more than 182,000 customers; the company generates about half of its power supply at its 250-MW gas-fired power plant and purchases the rest from other generators, including the Bonneville Power Administration. Clark Public Utilities also distributes water to about 30,000 customers and collects and treats wastewater for the City of La Center, Washington.

Dairyland Power Cooperative provides its customers with lots of juice in the land of lactose. The firm provides electricity generation (about 1,420 MW of generating capacity) and transmission services for 25 member distribution cooperatives and 16 municipal utilities in five states (including Wisconsin). The member cooperatives and municipal utilities in turn distribute electricity to almost 252,900 consumers. Dairyland Power generates more than 1,100 MW of capacity from its coal-fired power plants; it also operates 3,150 miles of transmission lines and 280 substations.

Piedmont Municipal Power Agency (Piedmont Power) generates, purchases, and transmits wholesale electricity on behalf of its 10 member municipal utilities, which distribute the power to nearly 95,000 retail customers in northwestern South Carolina. These ten utilities serve the cities of Abbeville, Clinton, Easley, Gaffney, Greer, Laurens, Newberry, Rock Hill, Union, and Westminster. Piedmont Power was created to buy an ownership interest in the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County, South Carolina, in order to secure a reliable source of electric generation for its member utilities.The agency currently owns a 25% stake in the Catawba plant.

Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Washington, probably used up its initial budget before it could hire a team of branding and identity consultants. But a dour name does not stop the power provider (commonly referred to as Grant County PUD) from operating two hydroelectric power plants on the Columbia River (2,000 MW of generating capacity) and distributing electricity to the 40,000 residents of Washington's Grant County. The district, which was formed in 1938 and went into operation in 1942, also sells power to twelve Pacific Northwest utilities and is developing a residential fiber-optic data network.

The Laclede Group, Inc. operates as a public utility holding company. The company’s principal subsidiary, Laclede Gas Company, provides natural gas service to approximately 630,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in metropolitan St. Louis and surrounding counties in eastern Missouri. Its primary non-regulated subsidiary, Laclede Energy Resources, Inc., markets natural gas and related services to on-system utility transportation customers and customers outside of its utility’s traditional service area. The Laclede Group company was founded in 1857 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Otter Tail covers a swath of businesses, from electric services and food-ingredient processing to manufacturing equipment, plastics, and health services. Its electric utility and energy activities are subsidiaries of Otter Tail, and its subsidiary Varistar holds Otter Tail's other interests. The electric utility has been the company's core effort since Otter Tail's start in 1907; it keeps the lights on for 129,000-plus residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Otter Tail also makes PVC pipes, wind towers, metal parts, and processes potato flakes, as well as offers diagnostic medical equipment, and construction and trucking services.

The utility provides electricity to 490,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers over nearly 32,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines. Idaho Power holds franchises in 71 cities in Idaho and nine in Oregon. It also owns power plant interests that give it a generating capacity of more than 3,000 MW. In addition, the company, a subsidiary of IDACORP, has a 33% stake in the Bridger Coal Company, which supplies fuel to the Jim Bridger generating plant in Wyoming.Idaho Power lights up spud farms and factories in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon.

Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (Warren RECC) provides its member customers with electricity, security systems, and surge suppression equipment, as well as with floodlighting and street lighting. It offers propane through non-affiliated Propane Energy Partners. The co-op serves more than 55,300 customers in an eight-county service area (Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Grayson, Logan, Ohio, Simpson, and Warren counties) in rural south-central Kentucky. Warren RECC is affiliated with the Tennessee Valley Authority and a member of Touchstone Energy, a 600-member alliance of electricity co-ops.

PG&E Corporation is well on the way to fully recharging its batteries after losing power and declaring bankruptcy following California's energy crisis and the ensuing collapse of the wholesale energy trading industry. Its venerable Pacific Gas and Electric utility serves approximately 5.1 million electric customers and 4.3 million natural gas customers in California. The utility (founded in 1905) is also engaged in electricity generation; procurement and transmission; and natural gas procurement, transportation, and storage. In September 2010 a PG&E utility gas transmission line ruptured in San Bruno, causing a major fire, loss of life, and destruction of, or damage to, about 170 homes.

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