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.
Smithers is a city in West Virginia, along the Kanawha River. Almost all of the city is in Fayette County, with a very small part in Kanawha County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 904 (901 in Fayette County, 3 in Kanawha County). The small river city is noted for having a rich cultural history related to both its coal mining and Italian-American heritages.