Types of Electric Companies

If you been in the power industry for only a few years, you may be confused by the type of owners of power plants found in the US and other countries. Many countries have one or two national utitlities. They may be goverment, investor, or privately owned.

In the US there are many type of owners of power plants. Owners can be divided into:

1. Investor Owned Utility (IOU)-

2. Cooperatives (Coop)-

3. Municipal Utilities (Muni)-

4. Independent Power Producer (IPP)-

5. Federal Utilty-

6. Industrial (C&I)-

 

Investor Owned Utilties

There are over 180 IOU's in the United states and thousands worldwide. Typically, a state utilites commission provides an IOU an exclusive service territory to provide electricty, water, or natural gas. Assuming electricty, IOU's have an "obligation to serve" every load in the service territory. This generally includes distribution and transmission and often, but not always generation.Their national assocation is the Electric Power Institute (EEI)

 

Cooperatives

There are over 900 coops in North America serving 42 million people. Most serve rural communities with relatively small number of customers. Only a small number of coops own generation. They supply electricity to the T&D only coops. They are challenged by low electric usage across a broad area. They benefit from tax free financing and a strong national network, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).

 

Municipal Utilities

There are more 2,000 community owned utilities serving 45 million people in the United States. Some such as the Los Angles Department of Water and Power serve millions of people while others are modest in size.  The American Public Power Assocaition (APPA) is the main association for their members.

 

Independent Power

Sometimes called a Non-utility Generator (NUG) is a power plant owned not owned by a public utility. There are over 1,700 IPP projects in the US including qualified facilties (QF's). IPP's have built a majority of new power generation in the past decade including; coal plants, natural gas fired peakers and combined cycle, and renewables such as hydro, solar, wind and other alternative energy projects.

 

Federal Utilties

There are 9 federal utilities including; Bonneville Power Authority (BPA), Tennesse Valley Authority (TVA), Western Power Authority (WAPA) and others.

 

Industrial

There are thousands of industrial sites in North America. Many have local energy plants that produce steam and electricty.

 

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