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.
Byron is a city in Ogle County, Illinois, United States located on the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad, Illinois Route 72, and Illinois Route 2. The population was 2,917 at the 2000 census. The population was 3,582 (+22.8% change) in the July 2005 estimate census, and 3,865 (+30% change) in the city's own census in 2006. The Byron Nuclear Generating Station, currently owned by Exelon Corporation, is just south of Byron. The station provides a great deal of the electricity used in northern Illinois. The town is also the birthplace of Albert Spalding and Wilson Irvine.