A public utility (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, and so forth for a public service Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income. Even where public (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies. Common arguments in favor of regulation include the desire to control market power, facilitate competition, promote investment or system expansion, or stabilize markets. In general, though, regulation occurs when the government believes that the operator, left to his own devices, would behave in a way that is contrary to the government’s objectives. In some countries an early solution to this perceived problem was government provision of the utility service. However, this approach raised its own problems. Some governments used the state-provided utility services to pursue political agendas, as a source of cash flow for funding other government activities, or as a means of obtaining hard currency. These and other consequences of state provision of utility services often resulted in inefficiency and poor service quality. As a result, governments began to seek other solutions, namely regulation and providing services on a commercial basis, often through private participation.[1]
The term utilities can also refer to the set of services provided by these organizations consumed by the public: electricity An electric utility is a company that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries. It is indispensable to factories, commercial establishments, homes, and even most recreational facilities. Lack of, natural gas A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies. Common arguments in favor of regulation include, water The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services to households and industry and sewage The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. The water industry includes manufacturers and suppliers of bottled water. Water privatization by companies in the water industry is becoming an issue as water security threatens the global community. Telephone services A telephone company is a service provider of telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Most of the largest telcos, whatever their origins, are or were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies[citation needed]. These monopolies are often referred to, primarily in Europe, as PTTs may also be included.
In the United States of America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language they are often natural monopolies Natural monopolies arise where the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, has an overwhelming cost advantage over other actual and potential competitors. This tends to be the case in industries where capital costs predominate, creating economies of scale which are large in relation to the size of the market, and because the infrastructure required to produce and deliver a product such as electricity or water is very expensive to build and maintain.[2] As a result, they are often government monopolies, or if privately owned, the sectors are specially regulated Regulation is "controlling human or societal behavior by rules or restrictions." Regulation can take many forms: legal restrictions promulgated by a government authority, self-regulation by an industry such as through a trade association, social regulation , co-regulation and market regulation. One can consider regulation as actions of by a public utilities commission A Utilities commission, Utility Regulatory Commission , Public Utilities Commission (PUC) or Public Service Commission (PSC) is a governing body that regulates the rates and services of a public utility. In some cases, government bodies with the title "Public Service Commission" may be civil service oversight bodies, rather than.
Developments in technology have eroded some of the natural monopoly Natural monopolies arise where the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, has an overwhelming cost advantage over other actual and potential competitors. This tends to be the case in industries where capital costs predominate, creating economies of scale which are large in relation to the size of the market, and aspects of traditional public utilities. For instance, electricity generation The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday. His basic method is still used today: electricity is generated by the movement of a loop of wire, or disc of copper between the poles of a magnet, electricity retailing Electricity retailing is the final process in the delivery of electricity from generation to the consumer. The other main processes are transmission and distribution, telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of messages, over significant distances, for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as smoke, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for and postal services Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post have become competitive in some countries and the trend towards liberalization In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation. Liberalization of autocratic regimes may precede democratization (or not, as in the case of the Prague Spring), deregulation Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces. Deregulation does not mean elimination of laws against fraud, but eliminating or reducing government control of how business is done, thereby moving toward a more free market. It is different from liberalization, where and privatization Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector (businesses that operate for a private profit) or to private non-profit organizations. In a broader sense, privatization refers to transfer of any government function to the private of public utilities is growing, but the network infrastructure used to distribute most utility products and services has remained largely monopolistic.
Public utilities can be privately owned A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of holders who do not trade the stock publicly on the stock market. Less ambiguous terms for a privately held company are unquoted company and unlisted company or publicly owned A government-owned corporation, state-owned enterprise, state enterpise, or government business enterprise is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government, and are usually considered to be an element or part of the state[citation needed]. There is no standard definition of a government-. Publicly owned utilities include cooperative and municipal utilities. Municipal A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council utilities may actually include territories outside of city limits or may not even serve the entire city. Cooperative utilities A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are essentially dividends paid on are owned by the customers they serve. They are usually found in rural Rural areas are large and isolated areas of an open country with low population density. The terms "countryside" and "rural areas" are not synonyms: a "countryside" refers to rural areas that are open. A forest, wetlands, etc. with a low population density is not a countryside areas. Private utilities, also called investor owned utilities, are owned by investors Investment is the commitment of money or capital to purchase financial instruments or other assets in order to gain profitable returns in the form of interest, income, or appreciation of the value of the instrument. It is related to saving or deferring consumption. Investment is involved in many areas of the economy, such as business management.[citation needed]
In poorer developing countries Developing country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well being. There is no single internationally-recognized definition of developed country, and the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries, with some developing countries having high average standards of living, public utilities are often limited to wealthier parts of major cities, as used to be the case in developed countries The term developed country is used to describe countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria. Which criteria, and which countries are classified as being developed, is a contentious issue and is surrounded by fierce debate. Economic criteria have tended to dominate discussions. One such criterion is income per capita; in the nineteenth century, but in some developing countries utilities do provide services to a large share of the urban population, such as in the case of water and sanitation in Latin America Water supply and sanitation in Latin America is characterized by insufficient access and in many cases by poor service quality, with detrimental impacts on public health. Water and sanitation services are provided by a vast array of mostly local service providers under an often fragmented policy and regulatory framework. Financing of water and.
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Common classifications of utilities in the United States
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- CWD – County Water District
- FCWCD – Flood Control and Water Conservation District
- FWSD – Fresh Water Supply District A fresh water supply district is a body which manages fresh water supply in a defined area in the United States. It may have the power of eminent domain
- ID – Irrigation District In the United States an irrigation district is a cooperative, self-governing public corporation set up as a subdivision of the State government, with definite geographic boundaries, organized, and having taxing power to obtain and distribute water for irrigation of lands within the district; created under the authority of a State legislature with
- IOU - Investor-owned utility An investor-owned utility or IOU is a business organization, providing a product or service regarded as a utility , and managed as private enterprise rather than a function of government or a utility cooperative. Such businesses can range from a family whose residential property includes a well whose flow in excess of the family's own needs
- MWA – Municipal Water Authority
- MWD – Municipal Water District
- MUD – Municipal Utility District A Municipal Utility District is an entity that provides several utilities within its coverage area including, but not limited to electricity, natural gas, sewer, waste collection, wholesale telecommunications, and water. The district is created by geographical or real estate developers, or as a Metropolitan Service Area (MSA) in which multiple
- POU - Public-oberchine Utility
- PUD – Public Utility District In the United States, a public utility district is a special-purpose district or other governmental jurisdiction that provides public utilities (such as electricity, natural gas, sewage treatment, waste collection/management, wholesale telecommunications, water) to the residents of that district
- WA – Water Agency
- WCID – Water Control and Improvement District
- WD – Water District
- WS – Water System The product, delivered to the point of consumption is called fresh water or drinking water. A hook-up to the sewerage is strictly seen unnecessary and is actually not in line with the principle of ecological sanitation. Rather than relying on water to transport feces and urine, compost toilets can be used which eliminate this extra water pollution
- WSC – Water Supply Corporation
See also
- Lists of public utilities Categories: Public utilities | Lists of companies by industry
- Electric utility An electric utility is a company that engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major provider of energy in most countries. It is indispensable to factories, commercial establishments, homes, and even most recreational facilities. Lack of
- Telephone company A telephone company is a service provider of telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Most of the largest telcos, whatever their origins, are or were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies[citation needed]. These monopolies are often referred to, primarily in Europe, as PTTs
- Water industry The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. The water industry includes manufacturers and suppliers of bottled water. Water privatization by companies in the water industry is becoming an issue as water security threatens the global community
- Airline deregulation Airline deregulation is the process of removing entry and price restrictions on airlines affecting, in particular, the carriers permitted to serve specific routes. In the United States, the term usually applies to the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. A new form of regulation has been developed to some extent to deal with problems such as the
- Common utility duct
- Electricity market In economic terms, electricity is a commodity capable of being bought, sold and traded. An electricity market is a system for effecting purchases, through bids to buy; sales, through offers to sell; and short-term trades, generally in the form of financial or obligation swaps. Bids and offers use supply and demand principles to set the price. Long-
- Energy In physics, energy is a quantity that is often understood as the ability to perform work. This quantity can be assigned to any particle, object, or system of objects as a consequence of its physical state
- Firm service Firm services, also called uninterruptible services, are services, such as electricity and natural gas supplies, that are intended to be available at all times during a period covered by an agreement. Also, the service is not subject to a prior claim from another customer and receives the same priority as any other firm service. Conditional firm
- Liberalization In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation. Liberalization of autocratic regimes may precede democratization (or not, as in the case of the Prague Spring)
- NAICS 22 NAICS 22 is the section of the NAICS system in Canada, the United States and Mexico which deals specifically with utilities in those countries
- American Public Power Association The American Public Power Association is the service organization for the more than 2,000 U.S. community-owned electric utilities that serve more than 45 million Americans
- National Rural Water Association The National Rural Water Association, with its affiliated state rural water associations, is the largest water and wastewater utility membership organization in the United States of America. The NRWA is a professional organization that supports rural and small water utilities throughout the nation. NRWA and its state affiliates are organized as a
- Off-the-grid The term off-the-grid or off-grid refers to living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities
- Public services Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income. Even where public
- Rate Case A rate case is the formal process which industries that have the legal designation of public utility are mandated to go through in order to set the rate at which they are allowed to charge consumers for their service. Rate cases serve as one of the primary instruments of government regulation of such industries
- Telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of messages, over significant distances, for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as smoke, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for
- Universal service
- Utility cooperative
- Infrastructure
References
External links
- refabrica.com - Latest News in Utilities and Information Technology
Categories: Public utilities | Political economy | Monopoly (economics) | Flow meters
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