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.
Bay Springs is a city in Jasper County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,097 at the 2000 census. It is located at the intersection of state highways 15 and 18. The area was settled in the 1880s by Joe Blankenship, who built the saw mill that became the town's industrial base. The city was incorporated about twenty years later after the arrival of railroads going through it.