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.
Enka is an unincorporated community in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It lies on U.S. Routes 19, 23, and 74 Business near the interchange of Interstates 26, 40, and 240. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 28728.. Enka was developed in 1928 as a company town for the Dutch-based American Enka Company which was the nation's largest rayon-producing factory at that time. The Dutch name of the rayon company was Eerste Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek Arnhem (It is from the initial letters of firm's Dutch name that "Enka" is derived). In 1929 the company began developing a community plan that included employee houses and became known as Enka Village.. Enka Village is now a historic community and is part of the City of Asheville.