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.
Alpine is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,146 at the 2000 census. Alpine has been one of the many quickly-growing cities of Utah since the 1970s, and especially the 1990s. It is located on the slopes of the Wasatch Range north of Highland and American Fork. The west side of the city also runs above the Wasatch Fault. The city is so named because when it was first settled, the Latter-day Saint Prophet Brigham Young visited and said the town reminded him of the Swiss Alps.