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.
Fife Lake is a village in Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 466. The village is situated within Fife Lake Township near the junction of U.S. Route 131 and M-186 (which serves as an eastward extension of M-113).