However, data for the FRCC will not be available until 1998. North American Electric Reliability Council and the Energy Information Administration. Many utilities are exclusively distribution utilities that is, they purchase wholesale power from others to distribute it, over their own distribution lines, to the ultimate consumer.
Some electric utilities have service territories extending beyond a single county or parish.
Others just serve a municipality or part of a county. Many counties in the United States are served by more than a single utility, and some parts of the country have more than 10 electric utilities operating in a county. An extensive system of high-voltage transmission lines is owned and operated by the Nation's larger utilities. This transmission network permits electricity trading between utilities. Without transmission facilities, electricity could not be moved from power plants to the thousands of distribution systems serving millions of consumers of electric power.