A corporation, person, agency, authority, or other legal entity that owns or operates facilities for the generation, transmission, distribution, or sale of electric energy or natural gas primarily for use by the public and is defined as a utility under the statutes and rules by which it is regulated.

A regulated entity that exhibits the characteristics of a natural monopoly. For the purposes of the electric industry, “utility” generally refers to a regulated, vertically integrated monopoly electric company. “Transmission utility” refers to the regulated owner/operator of the transmission system only. “Distribution utility” refers to the regulated owner/operator of the distribution system that serves retail customers.