ACEA S.p.A. municipal utility in Italy, it is also Italy's #1 water utility and a top electricity distributor. ACEA provides water to more than 7 million people and distributes power to more than 2.7 million homes and businesses in Rome and surrounding areas. In keeping with Europe-wide utility liberalization, the City of Rome has sold 49% of ACEA on the public market. The former monopoly has also built on Enel's Roman distribution assets, and through a joint venture with Electrabel, it has expanded into power generation, energy marketing, and natural gas distribution. ACEA also has international utility interests.

EVN spreads energy evenly across its territory in Lower Austria and beyond. The utility -- one of Austria's largest -- provides electricity, natural gas, heat, and related services. Outside its home borders, the company has gained control of electricity suppliers in Bulgaria and Macedonia, as these countries privatized their electricity industry. It is also marketing its environmental services (water, wastewater treatment, and waste incineration activities) around Europe. The company has built drinking water and wastewater treatment plants in Croatia, Poland, and Russia EVN has also put its waste-incineration know-how to good use and has a waste-to-energy plant in Moscow.

Lincoln Electric System (LES) takes care of all of the power needs for residents and businesses in Lincoln, Nebraska. The company generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity for approximately 128,130 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Lincoln and surrounding communities. LES has interests in fossil-fueled power plants and wind energy facilities; the utility also purchases power through contracts with other generation utilities, such as the Nebraska Public Power District and the Western Area Power Administration, and it markets power to wholesale customers.

Pensacola power users patronize Gulf Power. The regulated utility, a subsidiary of Southern Company, transmits and distributes electricity to more than 428,150 customers in northwestern Florida. Gulf Power generates about 2,660 MW of capacity from its fossil-fueled power plants, and it operates 1,600 miles of transmission lines and about 7,650 miles of distribution lines in its service territory. The utility, which serves 10 counties and more than 70 towns and cities, also provides wholesale electricity to two distributors in Florida, and it offers conservation, outdoor lighting, surge protection, and other energy-related products and services.

Carbtrol doesn't care about your carbohydrate consumption; instead, the company works to protect the health of the environment. Carbtrol makes activated carbon filters for air and water treatment, along equipment used for groundwater remediation and soil vapor extraction. In addition, the company supplies treatment systems designed to allow golf courses and car washes to recycle water. Carbtrol was founded in 1983. The company's primary product in the early years was activated carbon systems. It expanded its product line to include engineered packages using air stripping, vapor extraction technologies, and ion exchange treatment.

Operations at Toho Gas are solid enough to make it Japan's third-largest gas company after Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas. Toho Gas provides 3.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas to 2.3 million-plus customers in the Tokai region of Japan. Toho Gas also provides about 434,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas to about 290,000 customers. Boasting a 26,000-km pipeline network, Toho Gas imports natural gas primarily from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, and Qatar. TOHO GAS CO. additionally sells gas appliances, constructs gas pipes, and off its beaten path, paves and repairs roads.

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.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) keeps away malaise as it electrifies Malaysia. The largest power company in Southeast Asia, TNB generates two-thirds of the electricity on the Malaysian Peninsula. The company has a generating capacity of more than 11,940 MW; it also operates the national power transmission and distribution grid, which serves more than 7 million residential, industrial, and commercial customers. A host of subsidiaries support TNB's business; they include power equipment manufacturing, engineering, and real estate companies. Although Malaysia's power industry is undergoing deregulation, TNB has successfully resisted efforts to split up the company, which is 38%-owned by Khazanah Nasional Berhad.

American Water Works Company, Inc. provides water and wastewater services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the United States and Canada. As of December 31, 2009, the company served approximately 16 million people with drinking water, wastewater, and other water-related services in 35 states and two Canadian provinces. It owned approximately 80 surface water treatment plants, 600 groundwater treatment plants, 1,200 groundwater wells, 50 wastewater treatment facilities, 1,200 treated water storage facilities, 1,200 pumping stations and 100 dams, and 49,000 miles of mains and collection pipes. American Water Works Company also enters into public/private partnerships, including operation and maintenance contracts; and design, build, and operate contracts for the provision of services to water and wastewater facilities for municipalities and the United States military. In addition, the company designs, builds, and operates smaller-scale water and wastewater treatment plants for real estate developers, industrial companies, and new or expanding communities; and provides services to domestic homeowners to protect against the cost of repairing broken or leaking pipes inside and outside their homes. Further, it provides granular activated carbon for water purification, and involves in the management and disposal of biosolids and wastewater by-products for municipal and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1886 and is based in Voorhees, New Jersey.

The dryly named electric utility Electric Power Development Co. has a much more fun nickname -- J-POWER. With a generating capacity of 16,380 MW, the company supplies power used all over Japan. It has 67 hydroelectric plants, as well as some thermal and geothermal plants, and owns a transmission network that covers 2,400 km. J-POWER acts as a wholesale electric utility, selling to other electric power companies. Established by the Japanese government in 1952, J-POWER went through the privatization process, finally achieving full privatization and trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2004. The company is also sometimes referred to as EPDC.

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