The Native American inhabitants of Georgia may have used flint to spark the fires that brought light to their dwellings. Central Georgians today rely on the Flint Electric Membership Corporation, which does business as Flint Energies, to light their homes. Flint Energies serves 250,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers (through 82,500 meters) in 17 counties, Fort Benning, and the city of Warner Robins. The customer-owned cooperative operates more than 6,250 miles of distribution line and about 50 substations. Flint Energies first flicked the switch in 1937.

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.

New York Independent System Operator (New York ISO). The company, which replaced the New York Power Pool, manages and monitors wholesale activities on the state's transmission grid, which consists of some 11,000 miles of high-voltage lines. The New York ISO is charged with providing fair access to the state's competitive wholesale power market (37,400 MW of generating capacity), while ensuring the reliable, efficient, and safe delivery of power to New York's more than 19 million residents. The not-for-profit company is governed by a 10-person board of directors.

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.

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.

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) digs doling out energy in sandy Southern California. The company is a regulated utility that serves 1.4 million electricity customers and more than 840,000 natural gas customers in San Diego County and a portion of southern Orange County. The electric utility segment owns about 22,200 miles of power distribution lines, which serve about 25 communities; its 1,870 miles of transmission lines are managed by the California Independent System Operator. SDG&E also has limited power generation operations (it owns or contracts more than 5,500 MW of generating capacity). The gas utility operates almost 170 miles of transmission pipelines and about 8,420 miles of distribution mains.

Avista Utilities' vista is the Pacific Northwest and the Intermountain West. The utility, a subsidiary of integrated production, transmission, and distribution powerhouse Avista Corporation, provides regulated electricity and natural gas services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Avista Utilities provides power and gas services to about 673,000 customers (357,000 electric, and 316,000 gas). It serves power customers with a mix of hydro, natural gas, coal, and biomass generation (with a total capacity of 1,776 MW in 2009), and serves gas customers through purchased wholesale gas supply. The company sells excess electricity to wholesale customers.

Northwest Natural Gas Company stores and distributes natural gas in Oregon, Washington, and California. The company operates in two segments, Local Gas Distribution and Gas Storage. The Local Gas Distribution segment distributes natural gas in Oregon and southwest Washington. This segment engages in building and maintaining pipeline distribution system, purchasing gas from producers and marketers, contracting for the transportation of gas over pipelines from the supply basins to service territory, and reselling the gas to customers. It also transports gas owned by customers from the interstate pipeline connection, or city gate, to the customers’ facilities. This segment serves various industries, including pulp, paper, and other forest products; companies manufacturing electronic, electrochemical, and electrometallurgical products; companies engaged in processing of farm and food products; metal fabrication and casting companies; organizations that produce various mineral products, machine tools, machinery, and textiles; companies that manufacture asphalt, concrete, and rubber; printing and publishing companies; nurseries; government and educational institutions; and electric generation companies. As of December 31, 2009, it served approximately 668,000 total utility customers comprising approximately 605,000 residential, 62,000 commercial, and 1,000 industrial sales and transportation customers. The Gas Storage segment offers underground natural gas storage services to interstate and intrastate customers in the Pacific Northwest. It holds interests in approximately 8,500 net acres of underground natural gas storage in Oregon and approximately 1,900 net acres of underground natural gas storage in California; and interests in approximately 1,600 net acres of oil and gas leases in Oregon. This segment serves primarily natural gas distribution, electric generation, and energy marketing companies. Northwest Natural Gas Company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Macao Water Supply Co. Ltd,the utility supplies its customers with water from the West River's Modaomen Channel in Zhuhai City. Because of the high salinity content in the water (especially in the winter and spring months), Macao Water Supply uses a system of holding tanks and purification stations. Founded in 1932, the company is a subsidiary of Sino-French Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited (a joint venture of France-based water utility Ondeo Services and Hong Kong-based NWS Holdings Limited). As part of an ongoing maintenance strategy the company has replaced or repaired all of the distribution network that was in place in 1982.

Companhia Paranaense de Energia – Copel engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity for industrial, residential, commercial, and rural customers primarily in the State of Parana, Brazil. It owns and operates 18 power plants, including 17 hydroelectric power plants and 1 thermal power plant with an installed capacity of 4,550 MW; transmission system comprising 1,913 km of transmission lines and 30 substations; and distribution system, including 180,696 km of distribution lines and 350 substations. The company serves approximately 3,671,262 consumers. It also provides telecommunication and communication services consisting of broadband Internet, private networks IP/MPLS-VPN, videoconference, and hosting services to schools, banks, supermarkets, Internet providers, industries, public bodies, stores, and fixed and mobile telephone operators. In addition, company has 6,026 km of OPGW cables, installed between the main ring and urban radials, totaling 10, 054 km and reaching 226 cities Parana. Further, it distributes piped gas. The company was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Curitiba, Brazil.

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