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.
Waycross is the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Ware County in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 15,333 at the 2000 Census. A small portion of the city extends into Pierce County. According the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of this small section was estimated at just 9 in 2008. Waycross is the principal city of the Waycross micropolitan area, a micropolitan area that covers Pierce and Ware counties and had a combined population of 51,119 at the 2000 Census.