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.
Galesburg is a city in Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,988 at the 2000 census. Galesburg is on the north side of the Kalamazoo River on the boundary between Comstock Charter Township on the west and Charleston Township on the east, but is politically independent of both. The city is situated on M-96 and is just north of I-94 (with exits due south of the city's west side and about one mile to the east). Kalamazoo is about ten miles to the west and Battle Creek is about ten miles to the east. For statistical purposes, the Census Bureau has defined Greater Galesburg as a census-designated place consisting of the urbanized area outside the city's municipal boundaries.