Xcel Energy has accelerated its energy engine into utility markets across the US. The utility holding company distributes electricity to 3.4 million customers and natural gas to 1.9 million in eight states; Colorado and Minnesota account for the majority of its customers. Its regulated utilities -- Northern States Power, Public Service Company of Colorado, and Southwestern Public Service -- have more than 20,500 MW of primarily fossil-fueled generating capacity. Xcel also has 35,200 miles of natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines. Pushing green energy sources, in 2008 Xcel announced that it would develop solar-generated power plants in Colorado as part of its green energy initiative.

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.

Caithness Corp., which develops wind and other renewable power plants in the US under the Caithness Energy brand. Although the firm has focused on the development, acquisition, operation, and management of geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, and solar energy power projects, it also develops environmentally friendly fossil-fueled plants. Caithness is one of the largest producers of renewable energy in the US, and has developed more than 350 MW of geothermal projects, 160 MW of solar plants, and 440 MW produced by wind turbines. On the cleaner fossil fuel plant side it has also developed more than 2,000 MW of gas-turbine powered capacity.

Otter Tail covers a swath of businesses, from electric services and food-ingredient processing to manufacturing equipment, plastics, and health services. Its electric utility and energy activities are subsidiaries of Otter Tail, and its subsidiary Varistar holds Otter Tail's other interests. The electric utility has been the company's core effort since Otter Tail's start in 1907; it keeps the lights on for 129,000-plus residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Otter Tail also makes PVC pipes, wind towers, metal parts, and processes potato flakes, as well as offers diagnostic medical equipment, and construction and trucking services.

Touchstone Energy keeps in touch with the energy of its members. The organization is a national alliance of local, consumer-owned electric utility cooperatives providing service to more than 30 million customers through more than 660 affiliated cooperatives in 46 states. Touchstone Energy champions the cause of electric cooperatives nationwide through organizing branding events, media projects, and other public relations activities. The alliance runs television ads on various channels, including CNN, ESPN, TNT, The Weather Channel, TBS, and The Learning Channel. It also places print ads in national magazines and newspapers, including Reader's Digest and other major publications.

Phoenix Natural Gas is the largest gas distribution business in Northern Ireland, being the owner and operator of the licence for the distribution network in the Greater Belfast Area and Larne. The distribution business is responsible for the development of the pipeline network and also for providing a 24/7 operational and transportation service platform to gas suppliers under the rules of the company's network code.The Phoenix network currently extends to 2,940 kilometres of intermediate, medium and low pressure mains, which distribute natural gas throughout the licence area, representing around 50% of the population of Northern Ireland. Phoenix Natural Gas manages the development of the both the physical network and market in Greater Belfast; already some 123,000 customers have been connected to natural gas in the 12 years it has been available to them. The business is regulated under licence by the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation (NIAUR).

Zephyr Environmental provides consulting, training, and data systems services relating to such areas as air quality, water quality, business protection programs, environmental health and safety, risk management, waste management, and regulatory tracking. The company has undertaken projects for clients in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia/Pacific region. Customers have included oil and gas companies, as well as companies in the cement manufacturing, chemical, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor industries. Zephyr Environmental operates from offices in Texas (Austin and Houston) and in Maryland. It also maintains an office in Dubai.

WGL Holdings, Inc. engages in the delivery and sale of natural gas, and provides energy-related products and services in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. WGL Holdings, Inc. operates through three segments: Regulated Utility, Retail Energy-Marketing, and Design-Build Energy Systems. The Regulated Utility segment delivers natural gas to retail customers, as well as sells natural gas to customers who have not elected to purchase natural gas from unregulated third-party marketers. The Retail Energy-Marketing segment sells natural gas and electricity directly to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. As of September 30, 2009, it served approximately 151,000 residential, commercial, and industrial natural gas customers, and 113,000 electricity customers. The Design-Build Energy Systems segment focuses on upgrading the mechanical, electrical, water, and energy-related systems of government and commercial facilities by implementing traditional, as well as alternative energy technologies. WGL Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia.

Piedmont Municipal Power Agency (Piedmont Power) generates, purchases, and transmits wholesale electricity on behalf of its 10 member municipal utilities, which distribute the power to nearly 95,000 retail customers in northwestern South Carolina. These ten utilities serve the cities of Abbeville, Clinton, Easley, Gaffney, Greer, Laurens, Newberry, Rock Hill, Union, and Westminster. Piedmont Power was created to buy an ownership interest in the Catawba Nuclear Station in York County, South Carolina, in order to secure a reliable source of electric generation for its member utilities.The agency currently owns a 25% stake in the Catawba plant.

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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