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.
Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately sixteen miles southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. The population was 32,093 at the 2000 census. A 2009 North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) estimate placed the population at 45,600. Cedar Hill is a suburb of Dallas and is part of the Best Southwest area, which includes the nearby cities of DeSoto, Duncanville, and Lancaster. Early in its history, Cedar Hill served as the temporary county seat of Dallas County and lay along a branch of the Chisholm Trail. The seat of the county was moved to Dallas not long after.