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.
Oran is an unincorporated community in southwestern Fayette County, Iowa, United States. It lies along local roads southwest of the city of West Union, the county seat of Fayette County, and west of the city of Oelwein, the largest city in Fayette County. Its elevation is 1,043 feet (318 m). Although Oran is unincorporated, it has a post office with the ZIP code of 50664.