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.
Mereta (also Fisherville or Lipan) is an unincorporated community in eastern Tom Green County, Texas, United States. It lies along local roads east of the city of San Angelo, the county seat of Tom Green County. Its elevation is 1,755 feet (535 m). Although Mereta is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 76940; the ZCTA for ZIP Code 76940 had a population of 138 at the 2000 census. Mereta was named by the local postmaster in honor of twin sisters, named Meta and Reta, who lived in the area in 1902. The community itself was platted in 1904.