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.
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2008 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,020, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest municipality in West Virginia. Martinsburg is the county seat of Berkeley County and one of the core cities in the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Martinsburg and Berkeley County are growing very rapidly from the influx of people moving from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.