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.
Millwood is a hamlet located in the town of New Castle, New York in Westchester County. It was originally settled as Sarlesville. The area now known as Millwood appears on 19th century maps as Merritt's Corners (now the intersection of Rtes. 100 and 120) and Rockdale Mills (close to what is now the Briarcliff Manor border). As of the 2000 census, the community had a population of 1,210. Vanessa Williams grew up in Millwood and currently lives in New Castle's other hamlet of Chappaqua.