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.
Brandon is an unincorporated community in Hill County in Central Texas. It is located at the intersection of State Highway 22 and FM 1243, approximately ten miles east of Hillsboro. Brandon had an estimated population of eighty in 2000. Area students attend school in the nearby town of Bynum. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 76628.