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.
Livingston is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 27,391. Livingston was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 5, 1813, from portions of Caldwell Township and Springfield Township. Portions of the township were taken to form Fairmount (March 11, 1862, now part of West Orange) and Roseland (March 10, 1908). The township was given its name in honor of William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey with his family coat of arms as its seal.