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.
Jud is a rural hamlet in LaMoure County, North Dakota, in the United States. The population was 76 at the 2000 census. Jud was founded in 1905 and named for county settler Judson LaMoure. It is located along unpaved 61st Street SE, 9 miles west of State highway 281 and 25 miles south of Interstate 95 in the midst of settled farmland and open plains.