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.
Childersburg is a city in Talladega and Shelby counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. At the 2000 census the population was 4,927. It claims a history dating back to 1540, as a village of the Coosa Nation. The Alabama Army Ammunition Plant was located 4 miles north of Childersburg.