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 is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 10,850 at the 2000 census. In 2007, CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the second best place to live in America. Dartmouth College and the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) are located in town. Hanover is one of only a handful of communities where the Appalachian Trail passes through the town center.