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.
Hewlett is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 7,060. Hewlett is usually included as one of the Five Towns in the southwestern corner of Nassau County. In the context of the Five Towns, "The Hewletts" or "Hewlett" is often used to refer collectively to the hamlet of Hewlett, together with the villages of Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Harbor and Hewlett Neck, along with Woodsburgh. All the communities within Hewlett are part of the Hewlett-Woodmere School District or the Lynbrook Union Free School District.