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.
Thomson is a village along Illinois Route 84 near the Mississippi River in Carroll County, Illinois, United States. The population was 559 at the 2000 census. Just north of the village is the Thomson Correctional Center, a mostly-unused maximum security state prison. Thomson is known for watermelons, and it has the nickname "Melon Capital of the World."