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.
Randallstown is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is named after Christopher and Thomas Randall, two 18th-century tavern-keepers. At that time, Randallstown was a tollgate crossroads on the Liberty Turnpike, a major east-west thoroughfare. Today it is a suburb of Baltimore, with a population of 30,870 (2000 census). In the 1990s, Randallstown transitioned to a majority African American community, and is currently notable for its broad ethnic diversity. Its median household income ($58,686)is the highest in the near-northwest suburbs, and the fifth highest in Baltimore County, ahead of such other affluent communities as Towson, Owings Mills, Pikesville, Catonsville, and Perry Hall.