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.
Daphne is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The city is located just off I-10, 11 miles east of Mobile and 150 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 16,581 making Daphne the most populous city in Baldwin County. The city estimates its present population at approximately 18,000 in 2008. It is a principal city of the Daphne–Fairhope–Foley Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Baldwin County. The inhabited history of what is now called Daphne dates at least to the Paleo-Indian period and Native American tribes around 9,000 BC. Modern day Daphne is a thriving suburb of nearby Mobile with all the expected amenities of 21st century life.