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.
Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2000 census. It is nominally part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located in Western Massachusetts, it includes the village of South Deerfield. The town is home to Historic Deerfield, Deerfield Academy, a private secondary school preparatory school, Frontier Regional High School, Deerfield Elementary and two separate private junior boarding schools, Bement School and Eaglebrook School.