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.
Nottingham is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Its elevation is 62 feet (19 m). Although Nottingham is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 21236. Its total population in the 2000 census was 37,779.