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.
Tennessee Ridge is a town in Houston and Stewart counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 1,334 at the 2000 census. The Stewart County portion of Tennessee Ridge is part of the Clarksville, TN–KY Metropolitan Statistical Area.