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.
Andover is a city in Butler and Sedgwick counties in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,698. Located almost entirely in Butler County, it is part of the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area. Andover is well-known because of the tornado that hit the city in 1991. The city name is often confused with Andale, Kansas, a smaller city in western Sedgwick County. Andover has a satellite campus for the Butler County Community College.