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.
Dorchester was a town in South Carolina. Situated on the Ashley River around 18 miles (29 km) from Charleston, it was founded in February 1696 by the followers of Reverend Joseph Lord from Dorchester, Massachusetts, who gave it the same name of the town from whence they had emigrated, which was in turn named after the English town Dorchester. It was abandoned in 1751.