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.
Bowdon is a city in Wells County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 139 at the 2000 census. Bowdon was founded in 1899 by Richard Sykes, a landowner from England who named it after Bowdon, near Manchester where he lived.