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.
Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area and Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The population was 26,708 in the 2008 population estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau. It is located approximately seven miles north of Boston and is situated in the center of the triangle created by Interstate 93, 95 and US Route 1. The land that comprises Melrose was first explored in 1628 and was once part of Charlestown and then Malden. It became the Town of Melrose in 1845 and then the City of Melrose in 1900.