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.
Bethel is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, about sixty miles from New York City. Its population was estimated at 18,760 in 2005. In the 2000 Census, the town center was defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). The town is near Interstate 84 and has a train station on the Danbury Branch of Metro-North's New Haven line.