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.
North Chicago is an outer suburb/exurb of the Chicago metropolitan area and is an incorporated city in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The population was 35,918 at the 2000 census. North Chicago hosts the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and the manufacturing headquarters of Abbott Laboratories. The city is also home to Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, which houses the Chicago Medical School and the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine.