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.
Flowery Branch is a town in Hall County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,806 at the 2000 census; the United States Census Bureau estimated that the town's population was 3,994 in 2008. It is part of the Gainesville, Georgia, Metropolitan Statistical Area, as well as the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta metropolitan statistical area.