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.
Tilden is a city in Antelope and Madison Counties in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is perhaps most notable for being the birthplace of L. Ron Hubbard in 1911 and famous baseball player and broadcaster Richie Ashburn in 1927. Tilden was incorporated as Burnett in 1885, but the U.S. Post Office officially changed the name of the village in 1887, after presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, due to confusion with Bennet, Nebraska. The population was 1,078 at the 2000 census. The Madison County portion of Tilden is part of the Norfolk, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area.