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.
Maza is a former city in Towner County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 5 at the 2000 census. Maza was founded in 1893. According to the United States Census Bureau, Maza is one of only 8 places in the United States with a population of five people. The others are Storrie, California; Bear Head Lake, Minnesota; Baker, Missouri; Gross, Nebraska; Odell, New Hampshire; Somerset, Vermont; and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Maza was incorporated as a city until 2002, when the city was dissolved and governance reverted to the surrounding Maza Township. Maza shares a zip code of 58324 with the city of Cando to the north.