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.
Liberty is a city in Pickens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,009 at the 2000 census, at which time it was a town; the change to a city was made on January 1, 2001. It is part of the Greenville–Mauldin–Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community, originally called "Salubrity Springs," was chartered in 1876.