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.
Montgomery is a city in West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. Most of the city is in Fayette County, with the remainder in Kanawha County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 1,942 (1,239 in Fayette County, 703 in Kanawha County). Montgomery was incorporated April 1, 1891 and named for James C. Montgomery, one of the city's first settlers. It is the home of West Virginia University Institute of Technology, popularly called WVU Tech.