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.
North Providence is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 32,411 at the 2000 census. The town has the distinction of being the smallest by area (5.8 square miles) in the smallest state (1,214 square miles). Though at only 1.29 square miles (3.3 km), the city of Central Falls is Rhode Island's smallest municipality. Warren holds the title for smallest town (8.6 square miles) in the smallest county (45 square miles) of the smallest state. Despite its small footprint, North Providence has the eighth-highest population of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns, and the second-highest of the state's towns after Coventry, Rhode Island's largest municipality by land area.