Puget Energy is one of Washington State's largest utilities. Its electricity supply and transmission business, Puget Sound Energy, provides electricity to more than 1 million customers and natural gas to about 749,000 customers in western Washington. The utility owns fossil-fueled and hydroelectric plants as well as wind farms with a cumulative total of about 5,050 MW of capacity. In 2009, Puget Holdings LLC, a consortium led by Australian bank unit Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, acquired Puget Energy for $7.4 billion. The deal strengthens Puget Energy's access to cash to pay down debt and for future growth.

Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) provides electricity to 13.3 million customers in Japan's Kansai region. The utility has a generating capacity of more than 33,850 MW, which is produced at more than 160 hydroelectric, fossil-fueled, and nuclear power plants. As deregulation takes effect, KEPCO is moving into new business arenas, including retail natural gas sales in Japan. Additionally, KEPCO is engaged in information technology, telecommunications, construction and engineering services, environmental services, home security, real estate, transportation leasing, and other energy-related operations. It has about 50 main affiliated companies, primarily in Japan.

Summit Energy Services is a major provider of energy management and procurement services for industrial and commercial companies, and operates in 56 countries. A consolidator in a fragmented industry, the company's offerings include market intelligence reporting, need and competitive supply analysis, contract negotiation, utility bill auditing, risk advisory planning, and energy efficiency projects. It serves the automotive, healthcare, transportation, and food industries, as well as chemical, metal, paper, and plastic manufacturing companies, and municipal and state governments and hospitality and real estate management enterprises. Summit Energy Services has more than 650 clients.

RMT furnishes environmental engineering and consulting services to businesses that want to keep it clean. The company's services include solid waste management, liability reduction and remediation, air quality management, employee health and safety management, construction contracting, energy and alternative energy management, wastewater treatment, and data management services. RMT serves customers in the cement, chemicals, solid waste, electricity, forest products, metals, oil and gas, and textiles industries. Part of Alliant Energy's Integrated Services division, RMT operates 12 US offices with single locations in France and the UK.

Bangor Hydro-Electric (BHE) has dropped its hydro, but the company still has plenty of electricity. As part of the restructuring of the electric utility industry in the state of Maine, BHE has shed its generating facilities, including its hydroelectric projects, to focus on distribution and transmission. The regulated utility serves 117,000 customers in six counties in southeastern Maine. The company is also a member of the New England Power Pool. Bangor Hydro-Electric is a subsidiary of Canada's Emera, the parent company of electric utility Nova Scotia Power.

BKW FMB Energy has been lighting up the lives of the Swiss for more than a century. BKW produces, transmits, and distributes energy to more than 1 million residential and business end users in Switzerland and neighboring countries. The company also trades in energy. BKW operates about 13 hydroelectric plants and one nuclear power plant; it has stakes in another 15 hydroelectric plants, three nuclear power plants, and two plants that generate electricity from wind, solar and biomass sources. The total generating capacity of its plants is 640 MW. The government of the canton of Bern owns more than half of BKW.

Targa Resources Corp., through its general and limited partner interests in Targa Resources Partners LP, provides midstream natural gas and natural gas liquid (NGL) services in the United States. It engages in gathering, compressing, treating, processing, and selling natural gas; and storing, fractionating, treating, transporting, and selling NGLs and NGL products. The company owns and operates approximately 11,169 miles of natural gas pipelines and approximately 800 miles of NGL pipelines, with natural gas gathering systems covering approximately 13,500 square miles and 21 natural gas processing plants with access to natural gas supplies in the Permian Basin, the Fort Worth Basin, the onshore region of the Louisiana Gulf Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico. It sells its products to petrochemical manufacturers, refineries, multi-state retailers, and independent retailers. Targa Resources Corp. was founded in 2004 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a tax-exempt, consumer-owned public utility, organized in 1984 to provide low cost, reliable electric service for its rural distribution cooperative members. Its 16 member systems serve more than 185,000 retail consumers located in the Oklahoma Panhandle and an area covering 24 percent of Texas land area including the Panhandle, South Plains and Edwards Plateau Regions.GS Electric Generating Cooperative, Inc. was formed by Golden Spread in 1996 as a wholly owned affiliate to engage in exempt wholesale generating activities. GSEGC is a 50 percent owner of the 480 megawatt Mustang Station, a gas-fueled, combined cycle generating plant located near Denver City, Texas.Yoakum Electric Generating Cooperative, Inc. was formed in 2005, also as a wholly-owned affiliate to own and operate Mustang Station Unit 4, a new 150 megawatt combustion turbine-generator. The generating unit was completed in 2006, and in 2007 Mustang Station Unit 5, a second 150 megawatt combustion turbine-generator, was completed at the same site.

This Springfield is not Homer Simpson's hometown, or Abe Lincoln's. City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri supplies electricity, natural gas, and water for residents and businesses in the southwestern Missouri town. The utility, which has about 1,970 miles of power lines and 1,300 miles of natural gas mains, serves about 106,560 electric customers, more than 82,220 natural gas customers, and more than 76,600 water customers. It also operates the municipal bus system, which has 25 regular street buses and five demand/response buses. City Utilities of Springfield has a service region of 320 sq. ml. and serves a base population of 229,000.

South West Water, one of the main subsidiaries of Pennon Group, provides water and wastewater services to 1.6 million people (more during the summer tourism season) in England's South West region. The company's service territory covers nearly 4,300 square miles and includes Devon, Cornwall, and parts of Dorset and Somerset. South West Water maintains more than 9,320 miles of water mains. Because 8 million tourists come to the region annually to swim at its numerous beaches, the utility is responsible for environmental cleanup in the region. It instituted a Clean Sweep program to improve the treatment of coastal sewage and meet European Union guidelines. The utility was privatized in 1989.

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