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.
Piedmont is a census-designated place (CDP) along the Saluda River in Anderson and Greenville counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 4,684 at the 2000 census. The Greenville County portion of Piedmont is part of the Greenville–Mauldin–Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Anderson County portion is part of the Anderson Metropolitan Statistical Area.