Privatization is the light at the end of the tunnel for Companhia Energetica de Sao Paulo, one of Brazil's largest power generators. Known as CESP, the company is the largest generator of electricity used in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. CESP's six hydroelectric facilities (57 generation units) have a capacity of more than 7,456 MW. It gets most of its revenues from distribution utilities. Sao Paulo state government-controlled CESP previously had 22 power plants, but it spun off two generating companies and a transmission company in 1999. The slimmer CESP was targeted for auction, but the state government postponed the sale. CESP is restructuring its debt and is focusing on operational efficiency.

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.

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.

Pepco Holdings has more power than any politician in the populace of the US capital. The holding company distributes electricity and natural gas through its Potomac Electric Power (Pepco), Delmarva Power & Light, and Atlantic City Electric utilities to about 1.9 million customers in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. Nonregulated operations include independent power production, wholesale and retail energy marketing, and energy management services, through the company's Pepco Energy Services units.

PPL packs a powerful punch in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and the UK, where it distributes electricity to 5.2 million customers through regulated subsidiaries PPL Electric Utilities (1.4 million customers), two utilities in Kentucky (1.2 million), and Western Power Distribution Holdings (2.6 million electricity customers). The company has 19,000 MW of generating capacity and also sells energy wholesale in key US markets. Once a global power player with interests in distribution companies worldwide, the company has opted for the UK as its non-US focus. Western Power Distribution operates two of the 15 distribution networks providing electricity service in the UK -- WPD (South West) and WPD (South Wales).

ACEA S.p.A. municipal utility in Italy, it is also Italy's #1 water utility and a top electricity distributor. ACEA provides water to more than 7 million people and distributes power to more than 2.7 million homes and businesses in Rome and surrounding areas. In keeping with Europe-wide utility liberalization, the City of Rome has sold 49% of ACEA on the public market. The former monopoly has also built on Enel's Roman distribution assets, and through a joint venture with Electrabel, it has expanded into power generation, energy marketing, and natural gas distribution. ACEA also has international utility interests.

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.

Piedmont Municipal Power Agency (Piedmont Power) generates, purchases, and transmits wholesale electricity on behalf of its 10 member municipal utilities, which distribute the power to nearly 95,000 retail customers in northwestern South Carolina. These ten utilities serve the cities of Abbeville, Clinton, Easley, Gaffney, Greer, Laurens, Newberry, Rock Hill, Union, and Westminster. Piedmont Power was created to buy an ownership interest in the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County, South Carolina, in order to secure a reliable source of electric generation for its member utilities.The agency currently owns a 25% stake in the Catawba plant.

Taiwan Power (Taipower) is looking to get by with a little help from its friends. With a generating capacity of more than 38,080 MW, the state-owned utility serves nearly 12 million industrial, commercial, and residential customers. Thermal sources (coal, oil, and liquefied natural gas) fuel most of Taipower's plants; nuclear energy and hydroelectric sources make up the balance. Unable to meet Taiwan's power needs on its own, the utility has opened its market to independent power producers, allowing companies to build power plants and sell to Taipower. Taipower has resumed construction on the nation's fourth nuclear plant. The Taiwan government has announced plans to privatize Taipower (it owned 97% in 2009).

Otter Tail covers a swath of businesses, from electric services and food-ingredient processing to manufacturing equipment, plastics, and health services. Its electric utility and energy activities are subsidiaries of Otter Tail, and its subsidiary Varistar holds Otter Tail's other interests. The electric utility has been the company's core effort since Otter Tail's start in 1907; it keeps the lights on for 129,000-plus residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Otter Tail also makes PVC pipes, wind towers, metal parts, and processes potato flakes, as well as offers diagnostic medical equipment, and construction and trucking services.

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