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.

San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), which is in charge of supplying about 90% of San Diego County's potable water supply (mainly from the Colorado River). Formed in 1944, the authority provides water to its 24 member agencies (primarily cities and municipal districts), which in turn distribute the water to residents and businesses in the county. SDCWA also has hydroelectric power generation operations.

Nature Group (formerly Nature Technology Solutions) provides wastewater treatment services to the oil, shipping, and offshore industries. Its technologies treat various types of industrial, marine, and oil industry waste streams, including using an environmental-friendly additive that helps remove hydrocarbons in oily wastewater. It helps operate port treatment plants in Gibraltar and Tananger, Norway, and a sewage treatment plant in Gibraltar; it is also involved in decommissioning refineries, installing treatment plants, and treating wastewater on offshore rigs.

Terasen Gas is the largest natural gas distribution company in British Columbia. A Fortis subsidiary, it is the third-largest gas utility in Canada and the largest natural gas distributor in the Pacific Northwest. The utility serves 940,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in 125 communities in BC. Terasen Gas also provides gas transportation services to wholesale customers, operates a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, and pipes propane products to select areas of the province. Terasen Gas serves mainland British Columbia;Terasen Gas (Vancouver Island) serves Vancouver Island, the Powell River and the Sunshine Coast; and Terasen Gas (Whistler) provides natural gas to the town of Whistler.

El Paso Electric Company, a public utility company, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity primarily in west Texas and southern New Mexico. It principally operates nuclear, natural gas, and coal power plants, as well as purchases power. The company also operates wind turbines. As of December 31, 2009, it owned 6 electrical generating facilities with a net generating capacity of approximately 1,643 megawatts. The company served approximately 370,000 residential, commercial, industrial, public authority, and wholesale customers. It sells its products to electric utilities and power marketers, as well as to oil, copper refining, and steel production facilities, and the United States military installations. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in El Paso, Texas.

GAIL (India) Limited is no blowhard when it comes to turning energy into profits. The largest gas transmission and marketing company in India, GAIL owns more than 6,700 km of pipeline and has a 78% market share in India's natural gas transmission business. It has seven gas processing units and owns India's largest gas-based petrochemicals complex. In addition, GAIL has major domestic exploration and production operations. It also has a fiber-optic cable network of 13,000 km that provides bandwidth to telecommunications carriers. It is also involved in liquefied natural gas import projects. In 2010 GAIL (India) Limited expressed an interest in buying US shale assets. The government of India owns 57% of the company.

ALLETE provides light to the northern climes. Most of its business is classified within its regulated operations, which include electric, gas, and water utilities located in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Those operations are conducted through subsidiaries Minnesota Power (about 145,000 customers) and Superior Water, Light and Power (about 35,000 customers for its electric, gas, and water utilities). ALLETE's other segment includes coal mining operations, emerging technologies related to electric utilities, and a real estate business (large land tracts in Florida). Subsidiary BNI Coal operates a mine in North Dakota that supplies, primarily, two generating co-ops, Minnkota Power and Square Butte.

South East Water distributes water to some 2.1 million people in England's South East region. The company provides 565 million liters of drinking water daily. Its service territory includes Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, and its Dynamco unit provides engineering services for water companies. The company offers customers its E-metering service, an online application enabling customers to track and view the status of their water consumption; it also conducts water efficiency audits for its customers. In 2006 South East Water, formerly owned by Australia's Macquarie Bank, was bought by Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund, and Utilities Trust of Australia. It acquired Mid Kent Water in 2007.

Minnkota Power Cooperative keeps the juice flowing to power users in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. The generation and transmission cooperative supplies electricity to its 11 member-owner distribution cooperatives, and, as operating agent for the Northern Municipal Power Agency, to 12 municipal systems, to serve more than 129,000 retail customers in a 34,500-sq.-mi. region. Minnkota owns and operates a 235 MW lignite coal-fired generation plant in Center, North Dakota; also at the site it operates the 455 MW Milton R. Young plant owned by Square Butte Cooperative. Minnkota is also pushing green power through its ownership stakes in two wind turbine projects.

North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC) generates and transmits electricity to the state's 26 electric cooperatives in 93 of North Carolina's 100 counties. The co-op owns more than 600 MW of generating capacity through four primarily natural gas peak load generators, plus a 62% stake in Catawba Nuclear Station Unit 1, and a 31% stake in the common facilities of the Catawba Nuclear Station in South Carolina. It also buys power from Progress Energy, American Electric Power, and other for-profit utilities. NCEMC's member cooperatives serve more than 950,000 businesses and homes in North Carolina. The wholesale co-op also operates an energy operations center.

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