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.

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.

Midwest Energy for their power and gas needs. The utility serves approximately 48,000 electricity customers and 42,000 natural gas customers in central and western Kansas. It also has some power generation operations; it purchases most of its electric supply from wholesale marketers. The company's Midwest United Energy subsidiary is a competitive natural gas supplier in four states, and its WestLand Energy unit sells propane to Kansas consumers; it has sold its telecommunications business. Midwest Energy was formed in 1981 when the Central Kansas Electric Cooperative acquired investor-owned Central Kansas Power.

Midwesterners can feel the power, thanks to Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO), which monitors and coordinates the operation of an electric transmission system with 56,300 miles of transmission lines across 13 Midwestern states and one Canadian province. It manages energy markets with almost $23 billion in annual energy transactions. The Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) ensures fair access to the grid and facilitates communication between its members, which include investor-owned, cooperative, and municipal utilities, as well as power marketers and independent transmission companies. Midwest ISO also provides wholesale electric service across much of the region.

Minnesota Power can keep both Vikings and Packers warm. The utility, an operating unit of ALLETE, provides electricity to about 144,000 customers in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, as well as wholesale electricity to 16 municipal systems. Large industrial customers include Boise White Paper (a subsidiary of Boise Cascade) and Hibbing Taconite (a joint venture owned by ArcelorMittal, Cliffs, and US Steel). Its largest purchasing contract is with the Square Butte Electric Co-op in North Dakota -- Minnesota Power gets half of Square Butte's output -- but the company is attempting to transition from Square Butte's traditionally coal-generated energy to wind power.

Minnkota Power Cooperative keeps the juice flowing to power users in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. The generation and transmission cooperative supplies electricity to its 11 member-owner distribution cooperatives, and, as operating agent for the Northern Municipal Power Agency, to 12 municipal systems, to serve more than 129,000 retail customers in a 34,500-sq.-mi. region. Minnkota owns and operates a 235 MW lignite coal-fired generation plant in Center, North Dakota; also at the site it operates the 455 MW Milton R. Young plant owned by Square Butte Cooperative. Minnkota is also pushing green power through its ownership stakes in two wind turbine projects.

Mississippi County get their electricity from a cooperative. Mississippi County Electric Cooperative (MCEC) serves customers in the northeast corner of Arkansas about 60 miles north of Memphis. The area is home to two steel mills owned by Nucor Corporation that are powered by MCEC power; most customers are industrial or agricultural. The coop also offers Internet service via rural satellite broadband provider WildBlue, and provides its customers with energy audits and information on saving energy. It is a member of Touchstone Energy, a national alliance of electric cooperatives in nearly 40 states. MCEC was formed in 1938.

Modesty notwithstanding, Modesto Irrigation District (MID) does much more than irrigate 59,000 acres of land in the Modesto, California area. The state-owned utility also generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to more than 91,270 residential and about 12,700 commercial and industrial customers; markets wholesale power; and treats and provides drinking water to the city of Modesto for distribution purposes. The company is a not-for-profit organization formed by the government of Stanislaus County in 1887 to provide irrigation services in the Modesto region.

Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power) supplies wholesale electric power. The authority has a generating capacity of 2,069 MW through its interests in nuclear and fossil-fueled plants. Some 43% of the energy MEAG Power delivers comes from its nuclear plants. MEAG Power transmits electricity to 49 municipal and one county distribution systems across Georgia that in turn serve some 600,000 consumers. MEAG Power utilizes a transmission network that is co-owned by all the power suppliers in Georgia, though it plans to join a regional transmission organization (RTO).

National Power Corporation (Napocor) provides power for the nation of the Philippines. The state-owned utility builds and operates nuclear, hydroelectric, thermal, and alternative power-generating facilities and works with independent producers under a build-operate-transfer program. Its transmission network has a line length of nearly 13,000 circuit miles. With energy sales of more than 39,350 GWh per year, Napocor distributes electricity to power distributors and industrial companies. To comply with a sweeping privatization bill, the company has begun selling off its generation assets. It has also separated its transmission segment into an operating subsidiary.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.