Electricity Supply Board (ESB) is a leading electricity utility in Ireland, providing electricity generation, distribution, and supply. The state-owned company has several divisions that operate independently in the electricity market. Its ESB Power Generation unit operates 13 power stations in Ireland. Its generation plants have an installed capacity of more than 4,650 MW and serve a customer base of about 2 million. The group's ESB Networks owns the high-voltage transmission network and other distribution systems. ESB International develops power projects, including renewable energy plants worldwide; the company has installed 77 MW of wind farms in Ireland, and in 2010 acquired a 35 MW wind farm in Wales.

Brazos Electric is a 3,219 megawatt generation and transmission cooperative whose members' service territory extends across 68 counties from the Texas Panhandle to Houston. Organized in 1941, Brazos Electric was the first cooperative formed in the Lone Star state for the purpose of generating and supplying electrical power. Today, it is the largest generation and transmission cooperative in Texas. Brazos Electric is the wholesale power supplier for its 16 member-owner distribution cooperatives and two municipal systems.

Shell International Renewables (doing business as Shell Renewables) may be able to turn them into fuel to power homes and vehicles. The company oversees many of the parent Royal Dutch Shell's operations in alternative fuels, was formed in 1997 to commercially explore the global possibilities of new low-carbon power systems. Shell Renewables markets and distributes alternative energies from the sun, the wind, hydrogen (technically an energy carrier rather than energy source), and bio-fuels worldwide. It is researching hydrogen created from natural gas and bio-fuels, made of everything from corn to algae, to replace gasoline in cars.

PNM Resources, Inc. company's primary utility unit, Public Service Company of New Mexico, distributes electricity to nearly 500,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the state. PNM Resources operates power plants with more than 2,700 MW of generating capacity and markets energy to wholesale customers in the western US. Its Texas-New Mexico Power Company (TNMP) unit provides transmission and distribution services at regulated rates to about retail electricity providers that, in turn, provide retail electric service to 230,000 end users. Subsidiary First Choice Power is a retail electric provider operating in Texas and serving 234,000 customers.

Energy and Power Solutions (EPS) would like to help. The start up company, which promises up to a 25% energy savings using its methods, makes most of its money building on-site clean energy power plants. It also sells electrical and thermal power and operates power plants on behalf of its customers. But EPS touts its xChange Point energy monitoring software as the growth engine of the future. The software tracks energy use at the device, plant, and enterprise level in real time; EPS analysts use the data to recommend energy saving changes. The company, which filed to go public in 2010, has four customers using its products at more than 60 locations.

Through its regulated utility subsidiaries, Aquarion distributes water to more than 180,000 homes and businesses (or about 580,000 people) in some 39 communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. It is one of the 10 largest investor-owned utilities in the US. The company's Aquarion Services unit provides contract management of municipal water and wastewater systems, along with engineering and management consulting services and consumer water line protection plans. In 2007 UK-based Kelda Group sold control of Aquarion to Australia's Macquarie Bank for $860 million.

Energy Future Holdings (formerly TXU) has seen the future and it works -- powered by electricity. The company is the largest nonregulated retail electric provider in Texas (TXU Energy), with 2.1 million customers, and through its Luminant unit it has a generating capacity of more than 15,510 MW from its interests in nuclear and fossil-fueled power plants in the state. Energy Future Holdings has regulated power transmission and distribution operations through 80%-owned Oncor Electric Delivery. Oncor operates the largest regulated distribution and transmission system in Texas, providing power to more than 3.1 million electric delivery points over more than 117,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines.

Southern Water Services provides water to about 1 million households in South East England. In addition, Southern Water provides wastewater services to about 2 million households. The company has 90 water treatment works, 150 water supply booster stations, and another 370 wastewater treatment works. It maintains a network of some 13,600 km of water mains. The utility also recycles sewerage sludge for use in agriculture. Its area of operation includes Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight. Southern Water is owned by Greensands Investments Limited, which is owned by infrastructure investors and pension funds.

Fortis wields power. The group has holdings in 10 companies, primarily regulated electricity and gas distributors, serving about 2 million customers. Its Terasen unit is the major natural gas distribution utility in British Columbia and serves approximately 940,000 customers. Newfoundland Power utility distributes electricity to 240,000 people, while Maritime Electric serves customers on Prince Edward Island. FortisOntario serves parts of Ontario, and FortisAlberta distributes electricity to 480,000 customers in Alberta. FortisBC generates, transmits, and distributes electricity in southern British Columbia. Fortis Generation operates hydroelectric plants, and Fortis Properties runs hotels in Canada.

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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