Southern Maryland gets it power via the South Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO), which distributes electricity to more than 147,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in four counties. One of the ten largest electric cooperatives in the US, the member-owned enterprise gets its wholesale power supply through its membership in ACES Power Marketing. SMECO's service area includes all of Calvert and St. Mary's counties, and parts of of Calvert and Prince George's counties. Cities covered include Hughesville, Leonardtown, Prince Frederick, and White Plains.

GAIL (India) Limited is no blowhard when it comes to turning energy into profits. The largest gas transmission and marketing company in India, GAIL owns more than 6,700 km of pipeline and has a 78% market share in India's natural gas transmission business. It has seven gas processing units and owns India's largest gas-based petrochemicals complex. In addition, GAIL has major domestic exploration and production operations. It also has a fiber-optic cable network of 13,000 km that provides bandwidth to telecommunications carriers. It is also involved in liquefied natural gas import projects. In 2010 GAIL (India) Limited expressed an interest in buying US shale assets. The government of India owns 57% of the company.

STP Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC) is pulling out all the stops to make sure that the lights burn brightly in the Lone Star State. The company manages the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station on a 12,220-acre site near Bay City, Texas. The nuclear power plant's two reactors, which went into operation in 1988 and in 1989, produce about 2,700 MW of electricity and serve 2 million homes in Texas. The company is jointly owned by NRG Energy (44%), CPS Energy (40%), and Austin Energy (16%). STPNOC accounts for about 7.5% of the power consumed in Texas.

North Wind works to keep the air clean, the ground fresh, and the water clear in North America. The environmental consulting firm's services include site assessment, soil and groundwater remediation, geographic information system (GIS) data, hazardous and nonhazardous waste management, and project engineering and construction. North Wind has expanded by buying South Carolina-based Pinnacle Consulting Group, which offers engineering, environmental, and information technology consulting services.

Ferrostaal Incorporated is betting on the sun. The company is a subsidiary of the German industrial and heavy construction conglomerate Ferrostaal AG and provides its parent's alternative energy business in North America. It operates, with Solar Millennium, a joint venture called Solar Trust of America (STA) that concentrates on solar power generation. The International Petroleum Investment Company of Abu Dhabi bought a majority stake in Ferrostaal from MAN SE in 2009 and dropped the former parent company's brand from what had been called MAN Ferrostaal.

Thermal Energy International ledgers are in the black. The company focuses on providing air pollution control, renewable energy, and waste heat recovery and other energy conservation products, primarily under the Flu-Ace and Dry-Rex names. It also offers complementary engineering services. Thermal Energy International is also developing a product that targets ozone generation, THERMALOZOMAX. Customers include auto manufacturers; coal-fired utilities; food makers; hospitals; primary metal, pulp and paper processors; and sewage-treatment facilities.

AEA Technology has hitched its wagon to the climate change star, focusing on government and private sector efforts to combat global warming, develop low-carbon processes, and monitor carbon and emissions trading. AEA Technology offers consulting, program management, and emergency response services for commercial, government, and industrial customers. Other areas of expertise include agriculture, health, business innovation, and transport. It is a major provider of advisory services to the UK government on climate change issues and technologies.

United Water International, founded in 1995, is one of the largest water utility companies operating in towns and cities in both Australia and New Zealand (including major centers such as Adelaide, Ballarat, and Auckland). United Water International operates and maintains water and wastewater treatment plants as well as customer call centers. All told, the company serves somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million customers. United Water International is owned by Halliburton unit KBR, and Veolia Environnement.

Summerleaze has blown through a number of businesses -- aggregates, waste disposal, and renewable energy. The family-owned company, originally in the gravels/aggregates business, branched into using methane gas from the waste disposal landfills to make fuel. After acquiring renewable energy firm Thomas Graveson, it created Summerleaze RE-Generation, which has enough capacity (43 MW) to serve 70,000 houses from sites across the UK. Ennate Technology provides power generation equipment sales, maintenance, and hire services; its Green Hydrogen subsidiary supplies renewable hydrogen and oxygen for clients. Summerleaze also has a biogas unit, Summerleaze AnDigestion.

Trans-Elect has elected itself as a cross-border power company. The independent transmission company owns and operates about 12,600 miles of high-voltage power lines in portions of Canada and the US. The company acts as a wholesale provider of electricity to distribution companies. It operates the former transmission assets of of US utility Consumers Energy; it is also part of an international consortium that operates the former transmission assets of Canadian power distributor TransAlta. The acquisitions were the first of their kind in the deregulating North American electricity market. Trans-Elect is also involved in several expansion projects in congested areas of the US grid.

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