Berkshire Hathaway Energy (previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company until 2014) is a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
that is 92% owned by
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...
. Berkshire has owned a controlling stake since 1999. The company also controls power distribution companies in the United Kingdom and Canada.Greg Abel serves as president, chairman and CEO. David L. Sokol was CEO until 2008.
Until 2014, it was known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company from its root as
MidAmerican Energy Company
MidAmerican Energy Company is an energy company based in Des Moines, Iowa. Its service area includes almost two-thirds of Iowa, as well as portions of Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Its territory is wholly encompassed by the territory of ...
; it took on the name of its parent to reflect the diversity of its portfolio.
As of 2019, BHE "serves 4.9 million retail customers, generates 29 gigawatts of power and transports 8.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day over 16,400 miles of regulated pipeline."
Subsidiaries & investments
Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns the following companies:
*
MidAmerican Energy Company
MidAmerican Energy Company is an energy company based in Des Moines, Iowa. Its service area includes almost two-thirds of Iowa, as well as portions of Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Its territory is wholly encompassed by the territory of ...
*MidAmerican Renewables (
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
/
Wind Energy
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically, w ...
)
*
PacifiCorp
PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the western United States.
PacifiCorp has two business units:
# Pacific Power, a regulated electric utility with service territory throughout Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington. ...
, purchased for $9.4 billion in 2005
*
Northern Powergrid
Northern Powergrid Holdings Company (formerly CE Electric UK Funding Company) is an electrical distribution company based in Newcastle Upon Tyne in England. It is the owner of Northern Powergrid (Northeast) plc (formerly Northern Electric Distri ...
geothermal power
Geothermal power is electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 2 ...
plants
*Kern River Gas Transmission Company
** Kern River Pipeline
*Northern Natural Gas Company (Omaha)
*
HomeServices of America
Berkshire Hathaway Home Services is a residential real estate services company. The company provides real estate brokerage services, mortgage loan origination, franchising, title insurance/ escrow and closing services, home warranties, pro ...
(Real Estate, in 47 states)
*
BYD Company
BYD Co. Ltd. ("Build Your Dreams" Chinese: 比亚迪股份有限公司) is a publicly listed Chinese conglomerate manufacturing company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It was founded by Wang Chuanfu in February 1995.NV Energy (electricity and natural gas in most of
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
)
*Metalogic Inspections Services (Oil and Gas,
Power Generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...
, Fabrication, Pipeline, Services)
*Intelligent Energy Solutions (
Heat Pumps
A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing h ...
,
Solar Panels
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...
, and Biomass Boilers)
* AltaLink (Electric Utility in Canada) for C$3.24 billion in 2014
In 2017, BHE's proposed acquisition of Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC was terminated after BHE was outbid by Sempra.
BHE investigates producing up to 90 thousand tonnes of
lithium carbonate
Lithium carbonate is an inorganic compound, the lithium salt of carbonate with the formula . This white salt is widely used in the processing of metal oxides. It is listed on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines because it c ...
per year (and other minerals) from its 350 MW
geothermal power
Geothermal power is electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation is currently used in 2 ...
plants in California (
Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gul ...