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.
Wallace (also Kollock) is an unincorporated community in northwestern Marlboro County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 with SC 9 and SC 177, northwest of the city of Bennettsville, the county seat of Marlboro County. Its elevation is 151&feet (46 m). Although Wallace is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 29596; the ZCTA for ZIP code 29596 had a population of 2,606 at the 2000 census.