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.
Westminster is a city in Oconee County, South Carolina, United States. It was started mostly as a station on the Southern Railway. Then as stores, shops and factories started to set up around the train stop, it bloomed into a decent-sized town. Its peak of expansion came in the 1920s. The population was 2,743 at the 2000 census. The train depot, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, burned due to vandalism in 2005. It has been rebuilt. Westminster is home to several industries; among them are Beacon Blankets (formerly a division of Pillowtex, now a division of Faribault Woolen Mills), and a US Engine Valve plant.