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.
Partlow is an unincorporated community–populated place in Spotsylvania County in the U.S. state of Virginia. Partlow is a small rural community located between Jefferson Davis Highway and Lake Anna. It sits at an elevation of 400 feet, and appears on the Lake Anna East U.S. Geological Survey Map. Partlow's zip code is 22534, and as of the 2000 census, it had a population of 2,083. Partlow's primary historical significance is as the location of the plantation where Kunta Kinte was enslaved. Partlow is also home to Wallers Baptist Church, a historically notable church founded in 1769, known for the notorious persecutions against its founding pastor, John "Swearing Jack" Waller, by the Church of England.