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.
North Kansas City is a city in Clay County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,714 as of the 2000 census but a large business/industrial base swells the daytime population by thousands more. Originally a northern suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, it is the north side of Kansas City, Missouri which extends far north of North Kansas City's northernmost border. North Kansas City also adjoins the small municipality of Avondale, Missouri.