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.
Conroe is a suburban city 40 miles north of Houston, TX in the gulf coastal plains/piney woods region of southeast Texas. It is the seat of Montgomery County and falls within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 36,811 (though a 2004 estimate placed the population at 43,402).