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.
Port Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the community population was 15,215. Port Washington is an unincorporated area within and directly governed by the town of North Hempstead. In broader sense, however, Port Washington includes the communities of Baxter Estates, Manorhaven, Port Washington North, Sands Point, Beacon Hill, Beacon Hill Colony, Manhasset Isle, New Salem, and northern Flower Hill as these areas share the same ZIP code, school and library districts.