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.
Maricopa is a city in Pinal County, Arizona, United States, thirty miles south of Phoenix in the Gila River Valley. As of 2008, its population is estimated to be 45,571, an increase of 44,531 over the 2000 census figure of 1,040. This makes it the largest city in the county and Arizona's seventeenth-largest city. Maricopa's annexation plans during the next decade are likely to result in major growth in both population and area .