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.
The City of Arvada is a Home Rule Municipality located in Jefferson and Adams counties in the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area of the U.S. State of Colorado. Olde Town Arvada is located 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Arvada was 107,361 on July 1, 2008. Arvada is the seventh most populous city in the state of Colorado and the 235th most populous city in the United States.