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.
Summerville is a town in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 48,091 as of August 2008. The city is a distant suburb of Charleston; and has thus experienced rapid population growth. In 2007, it was designated a principal city of the Charleston–North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area Summerville is also included as part of the Charleston-North Charleston Urbanized area.