SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

                             Washington, D. C. 20549

                                    Form 8-K

                                 CURRENT REPORT

                       Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of
                       The Securities Exchange Act of 1934




        Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): May 29, 1998


Commission              Exact Name Of Registrant As             IRS Employer
File Number              Specified In Its Charter             Identification No.
- - - - -----------              ----------------------------         ------------------

  1-12459              MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company        42-1451822
                              (An Iowa Corporation)


  1-11505                 MidAmerican Energy Company              42-1425214
                              (An Iowa Corporation)



666 Grand Avenue, P. O. Box 657, Des Moines, Iowa      50303-0657
(Address of principal executive offices)               (Zip Code)





Registrant's telephone number, including area code:    515/242-4300



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Item 5.  OTHER EVENTS.

          MidAmerican  Energy Company, a public utility company and wholly owned
subsidiary of MidAmerican  Energy  Holdings  Company,  announced on May 29, 1998
MidAmerican Energy Company's Louisa Energy Center, a 700 MW coal-fired  electric
generating  plant,  was shut down  Wednesday  morning,  May 27, when a generator
step-up transformer failed. A copy of MidAmerican's press release is attached to
this report.



Item 7.  FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND EXHIBITS.

                 (c)  Exhibits.

                 Press Release of MidAmerican Energy Company dated May 29, 1998.



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                                    SIGNATURE



         Pursuant to the  requirements  of the Securities  Exchange Act of 1934,
the  Registrant  has duly  caused  this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned thereunto duly authorized.



                                          MIDAMERICAN ENERGY HOLDINGS COMPANY
                                          MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY



                                          /s/ Paul J. Leighton
                                          Paul J. Leighton
                                          Vice President and Corporate Secretary



June 1, 1998



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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 29, 1998


Tim Grabinski at 515-281-2343
(tdgrabinski@midamerican.com)


MidAmerican Energy Company's Louisa Energy Center, a 700 MW coal-fired  electric
generating plant located near Muscatine,  Iowa, was shut down Wednesday morning,
May 27, when a generator step-up transformer failed.

The company is in  discussions  with several  parties  regarding  the lease of a
replacement  transformer for use at Louisa.  If a lease is arranged as expected,
the replacement  transformer should be in place by mid to late summer,  1998. It
is  expected  that  Louisa  will  then  return  to  service  with an  output  of
approximately 600 MW, due to the smaller size of the replacement transformer.

A preliminary  inspection of the failed  transformer  indicated that it could be
repaired.  The  company  anticipates  that  the  repaired  transformer  will  be
re-installed by the spring of 1999,  allowing Louisa to operate at full capacity
at that  time.  The  company  is  currently  evaluating  the costs of the Louisa
outage.

MidAmerican  expects that electric  service to its  customers,  and the price of
electricity paid by Iowa customers, will not be affected. During the outage, the
company  intends  to  supply  its  customers  with  electricity  from its  other
generating resources as well as from purchases, when necessary, in the wholesale
electric market.


MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, includes
MidAmerican  Energy,  Iowa's largest energy company.  MidAmerican  Energy serves
648,000 electric customers and 619,000 natural gas customers in Iowa,  Illinois,
Nebraska and South Dakota.  MidAmerican's common stock is traded on the New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol MEC. Information is available on the Internet at
http://www.midamerican.com.