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.
Gilberton is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, four miles (7 km) west by south of Mahanoy City. Extensive deposits of coal are in the region, and coal-mining had been practiced by many of the 4,373 people who lived there in 1900. The coal-mining industry was thriving in 1910, and 5,401 people lived in Gilberton. The population was 867 at the 2000 census.