Missouri Gas Energy delivers natural gas in the "Show-Me" state. The utility, an operating unit of national natural gas power player Southern Union, distributes natural gas to more than 500,000 customers in 155 cities and towns located in central and western Missouri. Its territory stretches from St. Joseph in the north to Joplin and neighboring areas in the south, and from the Kansas border east to Ozark (near Springfield). Missouri Gas Energy has facilities in St. Joseph, Lees Summit, Warrensburg, Joplin, Republic, Neosho, and Monett. The Missouri Public Service Commission oversees Missouri Gas Energy's operations.

Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (Warren RECC) provides its member customers with electricity, security systems, and surge suppression equipment, as well as with floodlighting and street lighting. It offers propane through non-affiliated Propane Energy Partners. The co-op serves more than 55,300 customers in an eight-county service area (Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Grayson, Logan, Ohio, Simpson, and Warren counties) in rural south-central Kentucky. Warren RECC is affiliated with the Tennessee Valley Authority and a member of Touchstone Energy, a 600-member alliance of electricity co-ops.

Southern Nuclear Operating company, a subsidiary of Southern Company since 1990, operates six nuclear power units at three plant locations, which combined, provide about 20% of the electricity used in Alabama and Georgia. Southern Nuclear's Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant began commercial operation in 1977. The Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant and the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant are jointly owned by Southern Company's Georgia Power (50%), Oglethorpe Power (30%), the Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia (18%), and the city of Dalton.

Shell International Renewables (doing business as Shell Renewables) may be able to turn them into fuel to power homes and vehicles. The company oversees many of the parent Royal Dutch Shell's operations in alternative fuels, was formed in 1997 to commercially explore the global possibilities of new low-carbon power systems. Shell Renewables markets and distributes alternative energies from the sun, the wind, hydrogen (technically an energy carrier rather than energy source), and bio-fuels worldwide. It is researching hydrogen created from natural gas and bio-fuels, made of everything from corn to algae, to replace gasoline in cars.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which supplies power to a population of 44 million customers in Tokyo, Yokohama, and the rest of the Kanto region. One of the world's largest electric utilities, TEPCO's 190 power plants have the generating capacity of approximately 64,000 MW, primarily produced by thermal, nuclear, and hydroelectric power sources. Through interests in telecom businesses, the company offers telephony and Internet services; it also has international consulting and power generation operations. Other businesses include construction, real estate, and transportation companies. It also invests in independent power producers in other countries.

ALLETE provides light to the northern climes. Most of its business is classified within its regulated operations, which include electric, gas, and water utilities located in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Those operations are conducted through subsidiaries Minnesota Power (about 145,000 customers) and Superior Water, Light and Power (about 35,000 customers for its electric, gas, and water utilities). ALLETE's other segment includes coal mining operations, emerging technologies related to electric utilities, and a real estate business (large land tracts in Florida). Subsidiary BNI Coal operates a mine in North Dakota that supplies, primarily, two generating co-ops, Minnkota Power and Square Butte.

Origin Energy focuses on integrating businesses within the energy industry, primarily in gas production, power generation, and energy retailing in Australia and New Zealand (through Contact Energy). It also invests in renewable energy technologies. The company is the #2 retailer of natural gas, electricity, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Australia with some 2 million customers (mostly in Victoria). Origin explores for and produces gas and oil in Australia and New Zealand and supplies markets in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific. The company focuses on the Bass and Otway Basins offshore Victoria, the Perth Basin in Western Australia, Queensland's coal seam gas areas, and New Zealand's Taranaki Basin.

Let's cut right to the point: construction materials and mining used to be the lifeblood of Knife River Corporation, but in recent years, its energy and utility operations have grown to be the largest portion of its business. Oil and natural gas production, power transmission, pipelines and power utilities now dominate Knife River's balance sheet. But don't count out its construction services division, which continues to produce record earnings. Knife River has operations in Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, California, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, and Wyoming. The company is a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc.

Northeast Utilities (NU) uses a little Yankee ingenuity (and a number of power generation plants) to keep its customers powered up. The largest utility in New England, NU supplies power to more than 2 million customers in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts through subsidiaries Connecticut Light and Power, Public Service Company of New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts Electric. The company's power grid encompasses more than 3,100 circuit miles of overhead transmission lines and more than 32,800 pole miles of distribution lines. NU's Yankee Gas utility provides natural gas to 205,000 customers in Connecticut. In 2010 the company offered to buy regional rival NSTAR in for $4.2 billion.

Energy and Power Solutions (EPS) would like to help. The start up company, which promises up to a 25% energy savings using its methods, makes most of its money building on-site clean energy power plants. It also sells electrical and thermal power and operates power plants on behalf of its customers. But EPS touts its xChange Point energy monitoring software as the growth engine of the future. The software tracks energy use at the device, plant, and enterprise level in real time; EPS analysts use the data to recommend energy saving changes. The company, which filed to go public in 2010, has four customers using its products at more than 60 locations.

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