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.
Beacon Falls is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,246 at the 2000 census. Beacon Falls has a Metro North railroad station on the Waterbury branch of the New Haven line. Settlers from Derby, Connecticut settled Beacon Falls in 1678. The town was incorporated in 1871 on lands carved from the neighboring towns of Bethany, Seymour, Naugatuck and Oxford.