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.
Holland Patent is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 461 at the 2000 census. The village is named after a land grant. The Village of Holland Patent is in the western part of the Town of Trenton at the junction of Routes 274, 291, and 365.