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.
Laveen is a historically rural agricultural community in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, situated eight miles (13 km) southwest of Downtown Phoenix near the confluence of the Gila and Salt rivers. Parts of Laveen constitute an unincorporated area in Maricopa County, while the remainder falls within the city limits of Phoenix, constituting the city's "Laveen Village". Although Laveen has been home to "pastoral alfalfa, cotton, and dairy farms" since the 1880s, housing and commercial developments have been increasingly urbanizing the area.