Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Wainwright or Ulguniq or Kuuk is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 546, making it the second largest city in the North Slope Borough. The community was named after Wainwright Lagoon, which in turn was named an officer under Capt. F.W. Beechey, Lt. John Wainwright, who both discovered the lagoon in 1826. Wainwright was founded in 1904.