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.
Madison is a city in Limestone and Madison Counties in the U.S. state of Alabama, and is included in the Huntsville Metropolitan Area. It is therefore also included in the merged Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 36,824. The current mayor is Paul Finley.