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.
Hanover, Maryland is a locality in unincorporated northwestern Anne Arundel County, Maryland in the United States, located south of Baltimore near the Howard County line. It is located approximately at the intersection of Maryland State Highway 100 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. It is part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area and is located just southwest of the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (commonly known as "BWI"). Hanover was largely unknown prior to the opening of the Arundel Mills mall in November 2000. Since then, the area has seen explosive growth; shopping centers and housing developments have popped up along Arundel Mills Boulevard (Route 713), which links the B-W Parkway and Route 100 to Arundel Mills. There is currently an effort to fight the placement of a Video Lottery Terminal casino at the Arundel Mills Mall. The Maryland Department of Transportation is headquartered at 7201 Corporate Center Drive, which has a Hanover address.