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.
Crown King (also spelled "Crownking") is an unincorporated community in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States, located at an elevation of 5,771 feet (1,759 m). The site of a former gold mining town, Crown King is 28 miles west of Interstate 17 on Senator Highway high in the Bradshaw Mountains. The community is named after the Crowned King mine, but the name was shortened to Crown King in 1888. The ZIP code for Crown King is 86343. Horsethief Basin Lake resides 6.5 miles South-East of Crown King on Crown King Rd/Forest 259 Rd. While over US$2,000,000 in gold was taken from the Crowned King Mine alone, the mines have been closed since the 1950's and for the past half-century tourism has been the only reliable source of income in the area.