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.
Smyrna is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 40,999. Census estimates of 2007 indicate a population of 49,534. It is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, Georgia-Alabama (part) combined statistical area. Smyrna is one of the closest suburbs to Atlanta, located near the northern intersection of I-285 and I-75, which is the site of Cumberland and the Cobb Galleria. It is also near Vinings, Marietta, and Mableton, Sandy Springs and the affluent Buckhead district of Atlanta.