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.
Ripley is a town on Lake Erie in the westernmost part of Chautauqua County, New York, USA. The population was 2,636 at the 2000 census. The town was named after General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley. There are no incorporated villages in the town, but there is one CDP: Ripley.