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.
The City and County of Broomfield is a prominent suburb and tier of the Denver metropolitan area in the State of Colorado of the United States. Broomfield has a consolidated city and county government which operates under Article XX, Sections 10-13 of the Constitution of the State of Colorado. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the population was 54,858 on July 1, 2008. Broomfield is the 16th most populous city and the 16th most populous county in Colorado. Broomfield is a part of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area.