Public utilities provide electric, gas, water or telephone service to customers in a specified area. Utilities have a duty to provide safe and adequate service on reasonable terms to anyone who lives within the service area on without discriminating between customers. Because most utilities operate in near monopolistic conditions, they can be heavily regulated by local, state, and federal authorities. Generally, the local and state agencies are called Public Service Commissions (PSC) or Public Utility Commissions (PUC). Municipal Utilities and Rural Electric Cooperatives may be unregulated though.
Porterville is a city in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 39,615 at the 2000 census. City limit signs currently have the population at 51,467. The city's population grew dramatically as the city annexed many properties and unincorporated areas in and around Porterville. Porterville is considered part of the Census Bureau's designation of the Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area.