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.
Maumelle is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States and a suburb of Little Rock. Founded by Jess Odom with federal assistance from the Urban Growth and New Community Development Act, it is a master-planned community. Maumelle has the highest median household income in Arkansas. The Census Bureau and Arkansas Institute for Economic Advancement (AIEA) estimated that the 2008 population was 16,201 (a 53.5% increase over the 2000 Census population). The city is located northwest of Little Rock, bordering the opposite shore of the Arkansas River, and belongs to the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area.