Midwesterners can feel the power, thanks to Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO), which monitors and coordinates the operation of an electric transmission system with 56,300 miles of transmission lines across 13 Midwestern states and one Canadian province. It manages energy markets with almost $23 billion in annual energy transactions. The Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) ensures fair access to the grid and facilitates communication between its members, which include investor-owned, cooperative, and municipal utilities, as well as power marketers and independent transmission companies. Midwest ISO also provides wholesale electric service across much of the region.

GDF SUEZ Energy North America (GDF-SENA) manages GDF Suez Energy International's energy business in Canada, Mexico, and the US. The company develops and operates electricity and cogeneration facilities, markets and sells energy products and services, and imports and distributes natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). It serves both commercial and industrial customers. (GDF-SENA)'s primary unit (GDF SUEZ Energy Generation NA) owns and operates 60 power, cogeneration, steam, and chilled-water facilities, including those in construction, representing a capacity of 7,500 MW of electricity generation, 6 million pounds per hour of steam, and 42,000 tons per hour of chilled water.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) keeps away malaise as it electrifies Malaysia. The largest power company in Southeast Asia, TNB generates two-thirds of the electricity on the Malaysian Peninsula. The company has a generating capacity of more than 11,940 MW; it also operates the national power transmission and distribution grid, which serves more than 7 million residential, industrial, and commercial customers. A host of subsidiaries support TNB's business; they include power equipment manufacturing, engineering, and real estate companies. Although Malaysia's power industry is undergoing deregulation, TNB has successfully resisted efforts to split up the company, which is 38%-owned by Khazanah Nasional Berhad.

Energy and Power Solutions (EPS) would like to help. The start up company, which promises up to a 25% energy savings using its methods, makes most of its money building on-site clean energy power plants. It also sells electrical and thermal power and operates power plants on behalf of its customers. But EPS touts its xChange Point energy monitoring software as the growth engine of the future. The software tracks energy use at the device, plant, and enterprise level in real time; EPS analysts use the data to recommend energy saving changes. The company, which filed to go public in 2010, has four customers using its products at more than 60 locations.

Better PLC, or Better Place as it goes by, wants people to imagine a world free of oil. The startup, which was founded in 2007 on $200 million of venture capital, is teaming with automakers, battery manufacturers, energy companies, and governments to help make electric cars more viable worldwide. As an alternative to traditional gas stations, the company is attempting to build and operate an electric recharge grid to power electric car battery recharging stations, which drivers pay to access (much as phone users pay to access a mobile network). Better Place has begun work with partners in Australia, China, Denmark, Israel, Japan,and the US on this sustainable model. The company was founded by CEO Shai Agassi.

Western Area Power Administration is one of four power marketing agencies of the US Department of Energy, the enterprise operates 57 hydroelectric power plants and one fossil-fueled power generation facility with a combined generating capacity of 10,395 MW. It also manages and maintains more than 17,000 miles of transmission lines. Western Area Power Administration sells wholesale power to investor-owned, government-owned, and cooperative utilities, power marketers, federal agencies, native American tribes and other electricity users in 15 western states over a 1.3-million-sq.-mi. service area.

The Board of Public Utilities of Kansas City, Kansas (known as the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities) will help light the way. The utility provides electric transmission and distribution services to approximately 65,000 customers and water distribution services to 51,000 customers in the Kansas City metropolitan area (in Wyandotte and Johnson counties). The Kansas City Board of Public Utilities also has interests in coal, gas, and oil-fired power generation facilities. The utility is owned by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City.

Wahlco likes to keep it clean. It designs and manufactures air pollution control equipment, specializing in ammonia handling, flue gas conditioning, nitrogen oxide control equipment which it installs at power plants and other industrial facilities, including cement plants, oil and gas refineries, pulp and paper mills, and steel mills. Wahlco also makes products such as low-watt density heaters and specialty thermocouples for industrial applications. The company's systems and equipment can be found in more than 500 locations in more than 17 countries. Wahlco was founded by a small group of experts in 1972.

The Dakota Electric Association delivers electricity to residents of southeastern Minnesota, the Gopher State , so they don't have to burrow underground for those long, cold winters. The member-owned utility serves more than 100,000 customers in portions of Dakota, Goodhue, Rice, and Scott counties south of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The co-op gets its power wholesale from transmission cooperative Great River Energy and distributes it over 3,720 miles of power lines, nearly two-thirds of which are buried. Dakota Electric is pushing energy efficiency programs and products to help save its customers money.

Exelon Corporation company distributes electricity to 5.4 million customers in northern Illinois (including Chicago) and southeastern Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia) through subsidiaries Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and PECO Energy. PECO also distributes natural gas to 485,000 customers. Subsidiary Exelon Generation holds the company's power plants, whose production capacity is just about 25,000 MW. About two-thirds of Generation's power is nuclear. Exelon Power Team is a top wholesale energy marketer, and Exelon Energy markets retail power and offers other energy-related services.

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