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.
Brookfield is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 38,649 at the 2000 census. Its 2006 estimated population was 39,607. Brookfield is the second largest community in Waukesha County, and the leading commercial suburb of Milwaukee. Formed in the 1950s from the Town of Brookfield, which still survives, the City of Brookfield shares the Elmbrook School District with the Town and with Elm Grove, Wisconsin, although police and fire services are separate for Town and City.