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.
Francisco is a town in Center Township, Gibson County, Indiana, United States. The population was 543 at the 2000 census. It was founded in 1851. Local tradition says the town was named for its first settler, a Spanish laborer working on the Wabash and Erie Canal who built a shack in the area.