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.
Beech Island is an unincorporated community of Aiken County, South Carolina, United States. It appears to take its name from Beech Island, a nearby former island that is politically part of Georgia but geographically separated from the rest of Georgia by a river which changed its bed. It was preceded by the trading post and fort at Savannah Town. Another popular explanation for the name of the community comes from the fact that beech trees populate the "high-land" bluff along the Savannah River where the community is located. Of course, how "high-land" was shortened to "island" is as much a mystery as the origin of the community's name. Beech Island's most famous resident was the late James Brown who lived there for the last few decades of his life on a 60-acre estate.