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.
Hudson is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 22,928 at the 2000 census. The primary settlement in town, where over 34% of the population resides, is defined as the Hudson census-designated place (CDP) and is located at the junctions of New Hampshire Routes 102, 111 and 3A, directly across the Merrimack River from the city of Nashua.