Volunteer Energy Cooperative is voluntarily cooperating with its members to serve their energy needs. The distribution utility serves more than 108,000 customers (who also own the cooperative) in 17 central and eastern Tennessee counties. It operates more than 8,400 miles of power lines. Volunteer Energy purchases its power supply from the Tennessee Valley Authority. The company also sells propane and provides telecommunications (Internet access and long-distance phone) services. In addition, Volunteer Energy offers its customer surge protection and security equipment.

Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation's service territory is smack dab in the middle of Tennessee. The utility company distributes electricity to about 180,000 residential and business customers (member/owners) in four counties (Cannon, Rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson), via 10,000 miles of power lines connected to about 30 electric distribution substations. Middle Tennessee Electric purchases its power supply from the Tennessee Valley Authority. The corporation is Tennessee's largest electric cooperative and the sixth largest in the US.

Alabama Power powers up Southern Rockers and others in the heart of Dixie. The Southern Company subsidiary provides electricity to nearly 1.4 million residential and business customers in Alabama. The utility operates more than 91,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines, and it has nuclear, hydroelectric, and fossil-fueled power plant interests that give it a generating capacity of more than 12,200 MW. Alabama Power sells wholesale power to more than 15 municipal and rural distribution utilities; it also provides steam transmission (used for heating and cooling buildings) in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, and sells electric appliances (such as thermostats, ovens, and washing machines)

Czechs want to power up, they turn to state-controlled EZ, (the lead company of CEZ Group) which produces, distributes, and sells electricity and heat to 3.5 million customers in the Czech Republic. EZ, formed by the government in 1992, is now publicly traded, although in 2008 the government continued to control 63% of its stock. Subsidiaries and affiliates of EZ form what is known as the CEZ Group, which has operations in coal mining and power generation and marketing across Central and Southeastern Europe. The CEZ Group serves 7 million customers and has about 12,200 MW of generating capacity.

Let's cut right to the point: construction materials and mining used to be the lifeblood of Knife River Corporation, but in recent years, its energy and utility operations have grown to be the largest portion of its business. Oil and natural gas production, power transmission, pipelines and power utilities now dominate Knife River's balance sheet. But don't count out its construction services division, which continues to produce record earnings. Knife River has operations in Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, California, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, and Wyoming. The company is a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc.

Dee Valley Group, operating through its Dee Valley Water unit, supplies water to more than 106,000 households and 8,250 commercial, industrial, and business customers in North East Wales and Cheshire. Dee Valley Water, formed from the combination of Wrexham Water and Chester Waterworks, supplies water to an 831-sq.-km. area. Dee Valley Water exited its nonwater operations in 2002. The company has been investing in its mains and distribution system to preventage leakage, and in 2005 it completed a 15-year water main rehabilitation program. It also commissioned a water treatment works at Pendinas. Dee Valley Group was created in 1994 as the holding company for Wrexham Water. Axa Sun Life owns 35% of the company.

Massive power resource, Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) provides power supply services to its members -- 23 of the state's 40 municipal utilities (28 utilities are also participants in MMWEC power supply projects). The power supplier has about 715 MW of generating capacity from interests in fossil-fueled and nuclear power plants in the northeastern US, and it negotiates bulk electricity purchases from other generators for its members. MMWEC is the operator and principal owner of the Stony Brook Energy Center, a 520 MW, combined-cycle intermediate and peaking generating station in Ludlow, Massachusetts.

New York Independent System Operator (New York ISO). The company, which replaced the New York Power Pool, manages and monitors wholesale activities on the state's transmission grid, which consists of some 11,000 miles of high-voltage lines. The New York ISO is charged with providing fair access to the state's competitive wholesale power market (37,400 MW of generating capacity), while ensuring the reliable, efficient, and safe delivery of power to New York's more than 19 million residents. The not-for-profit company is governed by a 10-person board of directors.

Aquilex speaks softly and carries a big wrench. Through its operating subsidiaries, Aquilex Corporation provides maintenance, repair services and technical support to heavy industry worldwide. Customers include power generation facilities and other industrial plants, including cement, chemical, petrochemical, oil and natural gas processing, pulp and paper, metal refining, and steel manufacturing operations. The company was controlled by private equity firm Harvest Partners (which bought the company from First Reserve in 2007). In 2008 Harvest Partners sold the company to Teachers' Private Capital, the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Not-for-profit holding company Glas Cymru owns Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, one of the largest regulated water and sewerage companies in the UK. Welsh Water distributes water and provides wastewater services to 1.3 million household customers and more than 100,00 business customers in Wales and England. It has a network of about 560 service reservoirs. The company supplies 850 million liters of drinking water daily through its 27,000-km network of water mains. Its sewer system includes 19,000-km of sewers and more than 800 wastewater-treatment works. Formed in 2000, Glas Cymru bought Welsh Water from Western Power Distribution in 2001. Western Power Distribution had acquired Hyder, Welsh Water's parent, in 2000.

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