Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) keeps the power running smoothly. The consumer-owned cooperative provides electricity to homes, businesses, and industries in parts of 16 counties from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the mouth of the Rappahannock River in eastern Virginia. REC supplies power to 102,000 members over more than 12,000 miles of power line. Once rural in nature, the cooperative's territory has seen large pockets of suburban growth. REC offers surge protection, internet services, and home security plans to entice customers as competition from other suppliers arrives.

Associated Electric Cooperative makes the connection between power and cooperatives. The utility provides transmission and generation services to its six member/owner companies, which in turn provide power supply services to 51 distribution cooperatives in three Midwest states. (The distribution cooperatives have a combined customer count of more than 875,000.) Associated Electric operates 9,520 miles of power transmission lines and has about 5,240 MW of generating capacity from interests in primarily coal- and gas-fired power plants and from wholesale energy transactions with other regional utilities.

Portland General Electric (PGE) keeps many Birkenstock-shod feet warm: The company, formerly a subsidiary of Enron, generates, purchases, and distributes electricity to about 815,750 customers in Oregon. PGE's service territory covers 52 cities, including Portland and Salem. Its hydroelectric, coal-fired, and gas-fired plants had a generating capacity of more than 2,600 MW in 2009, and it purchased another 1,920 MW of generating capacity. PGE also markets wholesale electricity and natural gas to other utilities and marketers in the western US. In keeping with the "green" image of Portland residents, PGE leads the nation in residential customers who purchase power from renewable sources.

Sempra Energy, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development of energy infrastructure, operation of utilities, and provision of energy-related products and services worldwide. It operates through two divisions, Sempra Utilities and Sempra Global. The Sempra Utilities division includes San Diego Gas & Electric, a regulated public utility that provides electric generation, transmission, and distribution services to 3.5 million consumers, and natural gas distribution services to 3.2 million consumers; and Southern California Gas, a regulated public utility that provides natural gas distribution, transmission and storage services to a population of 20.7 million. The Sempra Global division comprises of Sempra Commodities, a commodities-marketing business operating under the joint venture, RBS Sempra Commodities, with The Royal Bank of Scotland; Sempra Generation, which develops, owns and operates, or holds interest in electric power plants serving wholesale electricity markets in North America; Sempra Pipelines & Storage that develops, owns, operates, or holds interests in natural gas pipelines and storage facilities in the United States and Mexico, as well as in companies that provide natural gas or electric services in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Peru; and Sempra LNG, which develops, owns, and operates receipt terminals for importing liquefied natural gas. Sempra Energy was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Scottish and Southern can speak with a Scottish burr or a southern English clip. The integrated company is one of the UK's top energy firms, distributing power and gas to 9.2 million customers through subsidiaries Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro Electric, SWALEC, and Atlantic Electric and Gas. Scottish and Southern's regulated utility assets include 79,300 miles of power transmission and distribution lines that serve 3.5 million end-users. Scottish and Southern has 11,300 MW of generating capacity. It also distributes gas to 5.7 million customers. Other operations include gas exploration, energy trading, wind farms, electrical and environmental contracting, gas storage, and retail appliance sales.

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.

Although South Central Power Company may sound like a power plant in Watts, Los Angeles, it is in fact a member-owned cooperative that provides electricity to consumers and businesses in southern Ohio. An affiliate of the nationwide Touchstone Energy Cooperative network, the electric cooperative provides power to more than 110,000 customers over more than 11,000 miles of power lines. In addition to distributing electricity, South Central Power also provides outdoor lighting, surge suppression products, security systems, water heater switches, and other energy-related services.

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.

Decatur Utilities (the operating name of the Municipal Utilities Board of Decatur) caters to the power, gas, water, and wastewater needs of more than 30,000 residents (including 14,600 gas customers) of the city of Decatur, and Morgan County, in Alabama. In an area that experiences heavy rain, Decatur Utilities spends approximately $1 million each year to repair clay sewer pipe and brick manholes and other aging infrastructure. The Municipal Utilities Board of Decatur was created by the Alabama Legislature in 1939 to provide safe and reliable utility services to the city of Decatur.

Show me the power. Cuivre River Electric Cooperative provides power to four eastern counties in the "Show Me" state: Lincoln, Pike, St. Charles, and Warren. The membership utility, which is one of Missouri's largest cooperatives with more than 58,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers, gets its wholesale power supply from the Associated Electric Cooperative and the Central Electric Power Cooperative. Cuivre River Propane, jointly owned and operated by Cuivre River Electric Cooperative and MFA Oil Company supplies propane to co-op members from four locations, Bowling Green, Elsberry, Troy, and Wright City.

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