Northeast Utilities—a Berlin, Connecticut-based Fortune 500 energy company—is currently the largest energy delivery system in New England. The company has more than 32,800 pole miles of distribution lines and over 3,000 circuit miles of electric transmission lines all over New England. Furthermore, Northeast Utilities also owns a 2,000 square miles wide natural gas distribution system in Connecticut.

Under the publicly-traded company are several regulated subsidiaries that provide natural gas services and retail electricity to an estimated 2 million consumers in the region.

Way back in July 1966, the Northeast Utilities company was established as a result of the merger of the Hartford Electric Light Company, the Connecticut Light and Power Company and the Western Massachusetts Electric Company. Merged under a single parent company, the partnership gave birth to the first new multi-state public utility holding company since the ratification of the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act. The NU System was later on joined by the Holyoke Water Power Company and was followed several years later by the Public Service Company of New Hampshire.

To date, the company manages four main subsidiaries namely the Yankee Gas Services Company, the CL&P, WMECO, and PSNH. The Yankee Gas Services company, or simply known as the Yankee Gas, is currently the largest natural gas distribution company in Connecticut. Yankee Gas delivers natural gas to an estimated 200,000 customers in over 70 towns and cities all over the state. The CL&P company, on the other hand, is currently the largest electric utility in the State. The company offers its services to more than 1 million residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers in more than 140 cities and towns.

PSNH, one of the NU’s main subsidiaries, stands as the largest electric utility in New Hampshire. PSNH operates three fossil fuel plants and nine hydroelectric facilities while the NU’s fourth main subsidiary, WMECO, serves as the primary distributor of electricity in the western part of Massachusetts.