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.
Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), in between Palm Desert and La Quinta. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 4,865. The city hosts the Indian Wells Masters (also known by its current sponsorship name of BNP Paribas Open), one of the nine tournaments in the Masters 1000 of high-level events operated by the Association of Tennis Professionals (i.e. , the men's tennis tour). The event is held in the 16,100-seat stadium of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.