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.
Ellenboro is a town in Ritchie County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 373 at the 2000 census. The town is located at the junction of U.S. Route 50 and West Virginia Route 16; the North Bend Rail Trail also passes through the town. The town was named for Ellen Mariah Williamson, the eldest daughter of the family that granted a right of way for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to build their line through the town; an earlier name for the community was Shumley. Ellenboro was incorporated in 1903.