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.
Handley is a town in Kanawha County, West Virginia, USA. The population was 341 as of 2007. Handley was first established in 1877 and known as Upper Creek until July 29, 1881, when its name was changed to Handley for pioneer settlers who farmed the area. Handley has the distinction of bearing a name like no other town in the United States. The town was incorporated November 1972. Handley is located in the Upper Kanawha Valley on the south side of the Kanawha River on West Virginia Route 61, along the Baltimore & Ohio and Chesapeake & Ohio Railways. Railroad yards moved here from nearby Montgomery in 1899. Trains and barges hauled coal for the Chesapeake Mining Company until deposits were removed from the town and surrounding hills.