One such company is Dominion Resources, a big American utility with trading operations.

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In North Carolina, where the utility also has operations, the legislature there authorized the collection of small monthly fees to pay for such endeavors, although the law has never been carried out.

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Sanko, a Japanese consulting firm that specializes in work for utility companies, is another pilot customer looking to streamline its operations.

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Difficult conditions have led the utility company to evacuate around 730 of the 800 workers from the site, making clean up and safety operations even harder to perform.

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