Utilities

Utilities is sector 55 of the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), the industry taxonomy developed in 1999 by MSCI and Standard & Poor's for classifying public companies by their principal business activity. Under GICS, sector 55 is organized as a single industry group, also named Utilities, divided into five industries: Electric Utilities, covering companies that generate and distribute electric power; Gas Utilities, covering companies whose main business is natural gas distribution and transmission; Multi-Utilities, covering utility companies with diversified operations spanning electric, gas and water; Water Utilities, covering companies that purchase and redistribute water to end users; and Independent Power and Renewable Electricity Producers, covering independent power producers and companies that generate electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power. A company, product, or service is classified into this sector when its principal business activity falls within one of these five industries.