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.
Oreland is a census-designated place (CDP) in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania, just outside of the Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy areas of Philadelphia, with a ZIP code of 19075. The population was 5,509 at the 2000 census.