employee owned founded 1988 headquarters jackson michigan key people dennis f. decosta p.e. president revenue 36 million approx . number of employees 300 website www.cai engr.com commonwealth associates inc. corporate headquarters commonwealth associates inc. is a u.s. engineering design firm headquartered in jackson michigan . the firm provides engineering and consulting services services to utilities ; independent power producers ; government ; industrial clients ; and academic research and healthcare institutions . the company also provides environmental and permitting services gis mapping land and right of way acquisition and document management services . commonwealth offers proprietary interactive software for the analysis and planning of electric utility transmission systems . commonwealth is employee owned and managed . 1 the company slogan is unleash the power of the nation s top talent . contents 1 history 2 expansion 3 recognition 4 practice areas 5 proprietary software 6 leadership 7 references 8 external links history edit commonwealth associates is part of the legacy of engineers william a. and james b. foote . 2 the foote brothers early efforts birthed some of america s most notable utilities . 3 the brothers transformed life in the area with streetlights hydropower dams and long distance high voltage transmission lines . 4 the jackson michigan office was established in 1886 under the commonwealth name . it served for years as the engineering arm of five giant utilities held by commonwealth and southern becoming an independent firm when the federal government ordered the break up of the holding company in 1949 . 5 computer sciences corp. acquired commonwealth services inc. july 15th 1970 . gilbert associates inc. purchased commonwealth associates inc. in 1973 forming gilbert commonwealth inc. 6 several thousand megawatts of power generation were designed by the staff in jackson before gilbert closed that office in 1988 . rebirthed in that same year as commonwealth associates inc. 7 engineering consulting and design continued to be provided for electric transmission and distribution facilities and in 2011 the company made the decision to once again offer power generation consulting and design services . in 2013 commonwealth celebrated its 25th anniversary of being employee owned . 8 9 expansion edit in 1992 commonwealth opened a regional office in the state of washington to serve the northwestern united states . since then the company has increased their midwestern presence with office openings in both columbus and dayton ohio . they have expanded into the southern united states with a regional office in atlanta georgia and into the southwestern united states with an office in oakland california . 10 in 2013 commonwealth opened a rocky mountains regional office in neighboring spokane washington which also serves canada . recognition edit commonwealth associates was ranked 7th in the nation and profiled among the 2015 top 10 electrical design firms by ec & m magazine 11 and ranked among the 2015 top 500 design firms by mcgraw hill s engineering news record enr.com . 12 it was designated a 2013 top 100 workplace by the detroit free press 13 and has been named among the best places to work by jackson magazine 14 earning the title of rockin place to work for its boiler room band and other unique employee perks . commonwealth provided land and right of way acquisition services on the city of portage michigan texas drive west milham ave. 12th st. roundabout project which was selected as a 2011 top 10 right of way project 15 by the international right of way association . practice areas edit program management owner s engineering owner s engineering power generation transmission & distribution substation electrical systems land & right of way services environmental gis mapping construction services data management proprietary software edit transmission grid analyticstm is the latest umbrella brand by commonwealth . it includes 2012 edition releases of mapping and cascade analysis . commonwealth s grid analytics mapping and transmission 2000 r products are being used to support research by wayne state university on the development of a smart phone application to give users real time emissions estimation that would allow them to selectively time their own electricity use to reduce air emissions . 16 17 transmission 2000 r is commonwealth s interactive software developed for microsoft windows for analysis and planning of electric utility transmission systems . modules include power flow pflow cascade analysis ca constrained economic dispatch ced contingency processor cp power flow reduction and data conversion pfr transmission mapping for network analysis c transmission access information library c tail power network data manager pndm one line diagram ol transient stability ts short circuit sc short circuit reduction scr powerplottm protection analysis pa training leadership edit 2001 present dennis f. decosta p.e. president 1988 2001 lester j. walcott p.e. president references edit working at commonwealth associates glassdoor http www.cai engr.com id content corp about us.html https www.consumersenergy.com uploadedfiles ceweb shared balanced energy initiative consumers energy ceo dave joos on investing in michigans future.pdf n 2109 croton dam michigan http www.southerncompany.com southern centennial timeline.html http intranet.cai engr.com sites default files document files 32 4 . % 20 % 20the % 20commonwealth % 20story % 201885 % 20 % 201985 % 20 % 2028 % 20pgs a % 20century % 20of % 20engineering.pdf http www.cai engr.com aboutus history.php http www.mlive.com business jackson lansing index.ssf 2013 01 engineering firm commonwealth.html incart river http online.jacksonmagazine.com publication i 168889 http commonwealthassociates.blogspot.com 2012 03 weve gone golden.html http ecmweb.com design announcing ecms 2015 top 10 electrical design firms slide 3 field images 119291 1 http www.freep.com assets freep pdf c42152031117.pdf http www.jacksonmagazine.com http www.gostructural.com news international right of way association unveils the 2011 infrastructure project of the year 993.html http www.mlive.com news jackson index.ssf 2013 08 commonwealth associates part o.html http engineering.wayne.edu wsuwater about hero.php external links edit corporate homepage cai engr.com commonwealth associates on facebook commonwealth associates on twitter commonwealth associates on linkedin commonwealth associates on youtube blog connect with confidence at commonwealth google profile retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title commonwealth associates inc. & oldid 716086299 categories engineering companies of the united statescompanies based in jackson michiganhidden categories articles created via the article wizard navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit 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