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.
Surrey is a city in Ward County, North Dakota in the United States. Surrey was founded on June 18, 1900, named after Surrey, England by railroad officials. In 1914, the Great Northern Railway made it the termination point of the cutoff line between the Minot and Fargo. The city was incorporated in 1951, with an original population of 150. It is a suburb of Minot and is part of the Minot Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 917 at the 2000 census.