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.
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast," it is one of the most affluent towns in the United States. The population was 19,607 at the 2000 census. Situated between the small cities of Norwalk and Stamford, the town is a bedroom community with relatively few office buildings. Most workers commute to the adjacent cities, and many also work in New York City. Two Metro North railroad stations — Noroton Heights and Darien — link the town to Grand Central Terminal and the rest of the New Haven Line. Although Darien has an increasingly vibrant downtown, residents often shop at the big-box stores and chain stores in neighboring Norwalk and Stamford. For recreation, the town includes four small parks, two beaches on Long Island Sound, four country clubs, a hunt club, and two yacht clubs. With a median home price of approximately $1 million, Darien is one of the most expensive places to live in North America, and was rated one of the best places to live in America by CNN in 2005. The public library in Darien, the Darien Library, has consistently ranked in the top ten of its category in the HAPLR (Hennen's American Public Library Ratings) Index of libraries.