The government often allows only one company to provide electricity in a given geographic area because allowing several companies to do so would result in an inefficient duplication of infrastructure. This suggests that electric utilities are:

natural monopolies

Explanation:

Natural monopolies -

It refers to the method of monopoly of the industry, where the cost of the infrastructure and other appliances is very high i. e., the cost of start up is very high in order to initiate the business, is referred to a natural monopolies.

Therefore, it is preferred to have a single natural over a particular geographical location, because unnecessary many natural monopoly would lead to the wastage of the resources and can even lead to inefficient duplication of the infrastructure.

Hence, from the given scenario of the question,

The correct answer is natural monopolies.