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.
Peru is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 416 at the 2000 census. Originally known as Bromley, the town name was changed to Peru by the land grantees as a way of attracting land buyers to an area that had been described as "36 square miles of trees and bears."