ATCO

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This article is about the Canadian engineering company. For air traffic control officer, of which ATCO is a commonly-used abbreviation, see Air traffic controller.

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ATCO Ltd. (TSX: ACO.NV.X) is an Alberta based corporation with operating subsidiaries in electric and natural gas utility operations, independent power operations, production, storage, processing, gathering, delivery of natural gas, technical facilities management for the industrial, defence, and transportation sectors, the manufacture, sale and leasing of industrial shelters and industrial noise abatement technologies.

ATCO Ltd. controls its operations through Canadian Utilities (TSX: CU). It owns 74% of Canadian Utilities' voting shares and 40% of non-voting shares. Canadian Utilities' registered head office is in Edmonton, and the main corporate office is in Calgary.

ATCO, through Canadian Utilities, has the following companies:

ATCO Electric (delivers electricity in Alberta, the Yukon (as Yukon Electrical Company), and the Northwest Territories (as Northland Utilities))
ATCO Frontec (project management and technical services to the natural resources and utilities industries)
ATCO Gas (delivers natural gas in Alberta)
ATCO I-Tek (information technology, billing, customer care)
ATCO Midstream (natural gas processing and storage)
ATCO Pipelines (transports natural gas throughout Alberta)
ATCO Power (electricity generation)
ATCO Structures (manufactures, leases, and sells modular buildings)
ATCO Travel (corporate and vacation travel services)
Genics Inc. (environmentally-friendly wood preservation products)

ATCO Noise Management (industrial noise-reduction services) is owned directly by ATCO Ltd, not through Canadian Utilities.

[edit] History

ATCO was founded in 1947 by Ron Southern and his father, under the name Alberta Trailer Hire, renting utility trailers in the Calgary area. As the company's operations grew, they also began to sell trailers, first becoming the Alberta Trailer Company, then ATCO. By the early 1960s, the company had operations across North America and in Australia.

ATCO Industries Ltd. became a public company in March 1968, with shares traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. During the 1970s, the company expanded into the natural gas and petroleum industries, and into the electricity industry in the 1980s.

In 2004, with the deregulation of the retail energy industry in Alberta, ATCO sold the retail operations of ATCO Gas and ATCO Electric to Direct Energy Marketing Ltd.; ATCO Gas and ATCO Electric still operate as "distributors" (owning and operating the infrastructure that delivers natural gas or electricity in its service territories) but are no longer in the retail market. (Consumers buy their energy from a retailer of their choice, but ATCO delivers the energy to the consumer.) This split between "retailer" and "distributor" has proved to be confusing to many Alberta consumers, many of whom have interpreted the change as meaning that Direct Energy now owns ATCO.