Publicly owned utilities are the most common form of power company, but investor-owned utilities serve more customers
As of 2017, nearly 3,000 utilities were operating in the U.S. Investor-owned utilities are very large companies that serve about 3 out of 4 electricity customers nationwide. Publicly owned companies may be run by federal, state or municipal governments. Cooperatives are nonprofit, member-owned utilities.
In 2017 the U.S. had 1,958 publicly owned utilities; 812 cooperatives; and 168 investor owned utilities. IOUs served three-quarters of electricity customers nationwide.
