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.
Aberdeen is a city and the county seat of Brown County, South Dakota, USA, about 125 mi (200 km) northeast of Pierre. Settled in 1880, it was incorporated in 1882. The city population was 24,658 at the 2000 census. The American News is the local newspaper. Also it is the home of Northern State University (NSU), and Presentation College (PC). Aberdeen is the principal city of the Aberdeen Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Brown and Edmunds counties and has a population of 39,827.