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.
Lehigh Acres is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. The US Census Bureau estimates the CDP's population at 67,867 as of 2006. The community is an expansive, pre-platted subdivision of approximately 61,000 acres (250 km). Lehigh Acres is a part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2006 population of 798,324.