Utilities
Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution.
This segment includes firms engaged in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power. Electric plants harness high-pressure steam, flowing water, or some other force of nature to spin the blades of a turbine, which is attached to an electric generator. Slightly fewer than half of the nation’s electrical energy comes from coal. The keyity of the rest is produced by a combination of natural gas, nuclear energy, and hydroelectric generators. Renewable sources of electric power―including geothermal, wind, and solar energy―are expanding rapidly, but only make up a small percentage of total generation.
Legislative changes and industry competition have developed new classes of firms that produce and sell electricity. Traditionally, only companies that distribute and sell energy to customers were involved in producing electrical power. Deregulation―a key legislative trend at both the Federal and State levels during the 1990s―allowed other firms to create electricity and sell it to local utility companies, who resell that energy to customers. Such companies are dubbed non-utility generators (NUGs).
When electricity leaves a generating plant, its voltage is stepped up to the level of the power grid. Transmission lines supported by huge towers connect generating plants with industrial customers and substations. At substations, the electricity's voltage is reduced and made available for household and small business use via distribution lines, which most commonly are carried by telephone poles.
Natural gas distribution.
Natural gas is a clear, odorless gas, located in underground deposits. Exploration and extraction of natural gas is part of the mining industry, covered elsewhere in the Career Guide to Industries. At one time extracted, it is transported throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico by gas transmission companies using pressurized pipelines. Local distribution companies take natural gas from the pipeline, depressurize it, add odor to it, and deliver the gas from transmission pipelines to industrial, residential, and commercial customers. Industrial customers, such as chemical and paper manufacturing firms, account for nearly one third of total natural gas consumption. Electric power plants, residential customers, who use gas for heating and cooking and commercial businesses, such as hospitals and restaurants, account for most of the remaining consumption.
Water, sewage, and other systems.
Water utilities treat and distribute tap water for use by business and residential customers. Water is collected from rivers, lakes, and wells. Shortly after collection, water is treated and sold for residential, industrial, agricultural, commercial, and public use. Depending on the population worked by the water system, the utility can be a small plant in a rural area that requires the occasional monitoring of a sole operator or a huge system of reservoirs, dams, pipelines, and treatment plants requiring the coordinated efforts of over a hundred of people.
Sewage treatment facilities operate sewer systems or plants that collect, treat, and dispose of waste from homes and industries. Even though standards for sewage are not as high as those for tap water, these utilities are responsible for removing harmful chemicals and microbes from wastewater before it can be released into the environment. Other systems include steam and air-conditioning stock utilities, which produce and sell steam, heated air, and cooled air.