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.
Cary is a large town in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located almost entirely in Wake County, it is the second largest municipality in that county and the third largest municipality in The Triangle after Raleigh and Durham. Cary is a suburb of Raleigh. The town's population was 94,536 at the 2000 census, but the Census Bureau estimates that its population had grown to 134,000 by 2009, making it the largest town and seventh largest municipality statewide. According to the US Census Bureau, Cary was the 5th fastest growing municipality in the United States between September 1, 2006, and September 1, 2007. The census bureau more recently rated the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area as the fastest growing municipality in the U.S. between 2007 and 2008.