NorthWestern, once a holding company for several energy-related businesses, is now blowing in one direction only -- providing power and gas through regulated utilites. Through its NorthWestern Energy subsidiary, the company provides electricity and natural gas to about 661,000 customers in Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota. In Montana it delivers electricity to approximately 335,000 customers in 187 communities and surrounding rural areas, 15 rural electric cooperatives, and in Wyoming to the Yellowstone National Park. NorthWestern delivers gas to 180,100 Montana customers. In Nebraska and South Dakota it sells natural gas to 85,5100 customers.

DTE Energy Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in Michigan. It also involves in non-utility operations. The company’s Energy Utility segment engages in the generation, purchase, distribution, and sale of electricity in southeastern Michigan. It generates electricity from various fuels, including coal, as well as from nuclear and hydro facilitates. As of December 31, 2009, this segment owned and operated approximately 677 distribution substations and approximately 423,600 line transformers; and supplied electricity to 2.1 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southeastern Michigan. The company’s Gas Utility segment engages in the purchase, storage, transmission, distribution, and sale of natural gas in Michigan. As of December 31, 2009, this segment’s distribution system included approximately 19,000 miles of distribution mains, 1,177,000 service lines, and 1,312,000 active meters. It also owned approximately 2,100 miles of transmission lines that deliver natural gas; and supplied natural gas to approximately 1.2 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers throughout Michigan, as well as to approximately 17,000 customers in Adrian, Michigan. The company’s non-utility operations include natural gas pipelines and storage; unconventional gas exploration, development, and production; power and industrial projects, and coal transportation and marketing; and energy marketing and trading operations. Its customers include electric utilities, merchant power producers, integrated steel mills, and industrial companies. DTE Energy Company was founded in 1995 and is based in Detroit, Michigan.

Seeking fame and fortune in and outside Finland, energy powerhouse Fortum generates electric power across the region. In the Baltic Rim its power plants create electricity (more than 10,980 MW of generation capacity), and heat. Fortum distributes electricity to 1.6 million customers (primarily in Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden). The company also has significant operations in a growth area, Russia, including 2,785 MW of power generation capacity. (Russia accounted for about 9% of Fortum's total revenues in 2009). Fortum has divested its oil and engineering assets in order to focus on its core power and heating businesses.

Having access to power is the natural state in the Natural State, thanks to Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation (AECC), the sole wholesale power provider for 17 Arkansas electric distribution cooperatives. The company operates power plants with about 2,640 MW of generating capacity, owns transmission assets, and purchases wholesale power to meet its members' demands. Affiliate Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI) provides administrative and maintenance services to the distribution companies. The distribution utilities, which serve 490,000 customers throughout more than 60% of Arkansas' area, along with AECC and AECI, operate as the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

Wisconsin Energy Corporation company's utilities provide electricity to more than 1.1 million customers and natural gas to more than 1 million customers in eastern and northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It also serves 465 steam customers in downtown Milwaukee. Wisconsin Energy has about 5,500 MW of generating capacity, primarily from coal-fired and nuclear-powered plants. The company's primary utility subsidiaries, Wisconsin Gas and Wisconsin Electric, operate together as We Energies. Other operations include real estate development and renewable energy technology.

Public Utility District No. 1 of Cowlitz County, Washington (or Cowlitz County Public Utility District), a Depression era institution that provides electric utility services to 47,400 customers (including 42,400 residential customers and 5,200 commercial clients) in its service territory. The municipal utility also serves more than 3,800 Longview-Kelso area water utility customers. Like 27 other PUDs in Washington state, Cowlitz County Public Utility District has the authority to offer electric, water, wastewater, and wholesale telecommunication service.

OGE Energy is the holding company for the largest electric utility in Oklahoma, but its largest revenue producer is its energy marketing and natural gas transmission unit, OGE Energy Resources. OGE owns Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E), a public utility with almost 777,000 retail and wholesale customers in Oklahoma (including Oklahoma City) and a bit of western Arkansas. OG&E owns coal- and gas-fired power plants that generate 6,420 MW of capacity. Subsidiary Enogex operates 7,900 miles of natural gas gathering and transportation pipeline. The company also provides physical, asset, financial management services through marketing unit OGE Eenergy Resources.

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) is all about is the company, with offices in the US and UK, uses a proprietary system called PowerBouy to generate electricity using the mechanical energy produced when offshore waves move the anchored buoys up and down. OPT offers a buoy system that connects to power grids as well as an autonomous one that can be used in remote locations and for tsunami monitoring, oceanographic data collection, and offshore aquaculture. Customers include the US Navy, Spanish power producer Iberdrola, and Spanish energy firm TOTAL. It has a contract with Lockheed Martin to build a large power generation system off the west coast of the US.

Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA) is committed to redoubling efforts to serve this Florida city with three double letters in its name. KUA operates the municipal power distribution system serving 62,000 commercial and industrial, and residential customers in Kissimmee and surrounding areas. It also offers its customers internet, telephone, and security services. In addition, the community-owned utility has stakes in some power generation units. The century-old company is used to managing operations in a hurricane prone area. In 2009 the company piloted a 4-day working week option for its employees as a way to bring down costs.

3E won't touch your hazardous materials, but the company will tell you what you need to know about them. 3E provides environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) information management services to help customers respond to emergencies and comply with federal regulations. The company maintains a database of 3.7 million material safety data sheets about materials used at the facilities of its more than 5,000 customers worldwide, and it provides around-the-clock telephone access to hazardous-materials experts. Customers include companies and governmental bodies such as Bostik, Southwest Airlines, Costco Wholesale, and the City of Amarillo. In 2010 the company agreed to be acquired by Verisk Analytics for $110 million.

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