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.
Second Mesa is a census-designated place (CDP) in Navajo County, Arizona on the Hopi Reservation. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 814, spread among three Hopi Indian villages atop the 5,700-foot (1,740 m) mesa: Musungnuvi (or Mishongnovi), Supawlavi (or Sipaulovi), and Songoopavi (or Shungopavi). Second Mesa is also the site of the Hopi Cultural Center.