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.
Stillwater is a city in and the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 39,065 at the 2000 census. Founded December 12, 1884 it was the first settlement in the Unassigned Lands. The geographical position of Stillwater is located Northeast of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area though many consider it to be a satellite exburb of Oklahoma City, due to commuter patterns and other indicators. The city of Stillwater is marketing a new census for 2010, implementing a program named "Count Stillwater" to help utilize the students of Oklahoma State University to increase the official population. The census is estimating a population of over 50,000, which would qualify Stillwater as its own Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city of Stillwater is currently developing and implementing a program, named "Count Stillwater". This would attract a significant number of new businesses and restaurants to the City and continue to grow "Oklahoma's fastest growing city."