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.
Milford is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States, on the Souhegan River. The population was 13,575 at the 2000 census. It is the retail and manufacturing center of a six-town area known informally as the Souhegan Valley. The town center of Milford, where over 61% of the population resides, is defined as the Milford census-designated place (CDP), and is located at the junction of New Hampshire routes 13 and 101A.