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.
Plymouth is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States, in the White Mountains Region. Plymouth is located at the convergence of the Pemigewasset and Baker rivers, both of which are components of the Merrimack River watershed. The population was 5,892 at the 2000 census, and the town is home to Plymouth State University, Speare Memorial Hospital, and Plymouth Regional High School. The town's central settlement, where over 59% of the population resides, is defined as the Plymouth census-designated place (CDP), and is located along U.S. Route 3, south of the confluence of the Baker and Pemigewasset rivers.