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.
Wilbraham is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is also a suburb of the City of Springfield, Massachusetts and part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,473 at the 2000 census. Wilbraham was originally divided between North Wilbraham and Wilbraham. North Wilbraham was home to the industrial side of the town along with the Boston & Albany Railroad Line which is still in use today. Wilbraham was home to the farms and the Wilbraham & Monson Academy. At one time North Wilbraham even had its own zip code which was 01067. However the term North Wilbraham is now very rarely used. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Wilbraham. In 1928, author H. P. Lovecraft visited Wilbraham, after which he modeled the fictional town of Dunwich in his story The Dunwich Horror.