copel - companhia paranaense de energia, the largest company of the state of paraná, was founded on october 26, 1954 with ownership control held by the state of paraná. the company went public in april 1994 (bm&fbovespa) and, in 1997, it was the first company of the brazilian electricity sector to be listed at the new york stock exchange. as from june 2002, the brand is also present at the european economic community, having been listed at latibex - the latin american arm of the madrid stock exchange. as of may 7, 2008, copel's shares were ranked at level 1 of são paulo stock exchange (bm&fbovespa)'s corporate governance. the company directly serves 4,255,804 consuming units, across 395 cities and 1,113 locations (districts, villages and settlements), located in the state of paraná. this network consists of 3.3 million homes, 91 thousand plants, 348 thousand commercial establishments and 372 thousand rural properties. the staff is composed of 8,573 employees. copel's structure comp