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.
Bryan is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 65,660. It is the county seat of Brazos County and is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley (Southeast Central Texas). It shares its border with the city of College Station, which lies to its south. Together they are referred to as the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area, the sixteenth largest Metropolitan area in Texas containing around 190,000 people. The city is centrally located, approximately equidistant from three of the 10 largest cities in the United States. It is 92 miles (148 km) north-northwest of Houston, 166 miles (267 km) northeast of San Antonio and 169 miles (272 km) south of Dallas. It is 104 miles (167 km) east of Austin, the state capital of Texas. 75% of the Texas and Louisiana populations (13.1 million people) live within 3.5 driving hours of Bryan.