Public utilities commission

A public utilities commission is a quasi-governmental body that provides oversight and/or regulation of public utilities in a particular area (locality, municipality, or subnational division), especially in the United States and Canada.

These utilities often operate as legal monopolies, which means that they do not compete in a marketplace but are instead regulated by commissions to ensure fair pricing.

In Canada, a public utilities commission (PUC) is a public utility regulator, typically a semi-independent quasi-judicial tribunal, owned and operated within a municipal or local government system under the oversight of one or more elected commissioners.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners[9] is the national association representing the interests of the public utilities commissions in all 50 states.

The first state utility regulator was the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, founded in 1907 under Governor Robert M. La Follette to set minimum standards and regulate rates of monopoly utilities.