TransAlta has transformed itself from one of Canada's largest electric utilities into a global independent power producer with assets in Australia, Canada, and the US. The company has about about 8,990 MW of operational generating capacity. It trades and markets electricity and gas in Canada and the US. Most of TransAlta's generating capacity is coal-fired; the rest comes from gas-fired, hydroelectric, and alternative-energy plants. TransAlta has sold its regulated distribution and transmission businesses to focus on power generation and marketing, primarily to industrial and wholesale customers. The company has more than 80 power plants in Australia, Canada, and the US.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division (MLGW) helps lighten up the Memphis blues. The municipally owned utility provides electricity, water, and natural gas services for all of Shelby County, Tennessee, including the city of Memphis. It serves primarily residential and commercial customers. MLGW buys electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and distributes it to more than 420,000 customers. The company purchases natural gas on the spot market, transmits it through open access pipelines, and delivers it to about 320,000 customers. Through its artesian water system, MLGW supplies water to more than 257,000 customers.

Global Environmental Energy Corporation wants to improve China and other countries by turning their unwanted waste into energy. It also searches for oil and gas and has interests in clean coal technology. The company's alternative power generation technology uses waste from industrial, municipal, and agricultural facilities to produce electricity for its clients. Subsidiary Biosphere Development Corp has sold nine Biosphere Process Systems in China and one in Lebanon. Subsidiary Sahara Petroleum Exploration explores for oil in North Africa but has been inactive since 2007.

Southwestern Electric Power Company Company Profile Southwestern Electric Power cuts a wide, welcome swath through the southwestern US to help beat the sweltering heat. The utility, founded in 1912, serves some 471,000 electricity customers in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Southwestern Electric Power operates 20,450 miles of transmission and distribution lines. Southwestern Electric Power also has interests in fossil-fueled power plants that give it a generating capacity of 4,850 MW, and it sells power to wholesale customers. American Electric Power Company acquired the company in 2000.

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)

Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc., an energy services company, distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial, and power generation customers in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. It also operates various energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage, and intrastate natural gas transportation. As of October 31, 2009, the company served 952,469 retail customers and 61,000 customers served by municipalities. Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

WPPI Energy (formerly Wisconsin Public Power) generates, purchases, and supplies wholesale electricity to 51 municipal distribution utilities, which in turn serve more than 192,000 homes and businesses in Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Iowa. Founded as a political subdivision of the State of Wisconsin, the utility was formed by its member-owners (the municipalities) in 1980. WPPI Energy has interests in power plants that give it a capacity of more than 1,120 MW. It also engages in wholesale energy transactions with other regional utilities and energy marketers and is a major advocate of green energy power resources.

The city-owned utility also produces and distributes steam to 250 customers along 14 miles of steam line. Lansing Board of Water and Light can chill out too. Its chilled water system delivers up to 10,000 tons of chilled water capacity to 14 customers to cool the interior of buildings in the downtown area. Lansing Board of Water and Light is the largest municipally owned utility in the state. It is also a major employer in the Lansing area.Letting off a little steam is a good thing for Lansing Board of Water and Light, which provides electricity to 96,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers and water to about 55,000 customers in Lansing, Michigan

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.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) keeps the movie cameras running and the swimming pools full. The largest municipally owned utility in the US, LADWP provides electricity to more than 1.4 million residential and business customers and water to 640,000 customers. The company has power plant interests that give it more than 7,220 MW of generating capacity; it also buys and sells wholesale power. Most of the city's water supply is transported through two aqueduct systems from the Sierra Nevada Mountains; other water sources include wells and local groundwater basins. Because LADWP is city-owned, its retail monopoly status was unaffected by utility deregulation in California.

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