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.
East Wenatchee is a city in Douglas County, Washington, United States along the northern banks of the Columbia River. According to the Washington Office of Financial Management, as of April 2008, the city's population was 11,570. On November 10, 2002, East Wenatchee was designated a principal city of the Wenatchee–East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area by the Office of Management and Budget.