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.
Eastlake is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,255 at the 2000 census. Eastlake is the site where Akron's FirstEnergy's Eastlake Generating Station shutdown at 1:31pm EDT on August 14, 2003, eventually leading to the infamous 2003 North America blackout a few hours later.