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.
Robins is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,806 at the 2000 census; a special census in 2005 counted 2,435 residents. Robins is a suburb of Cedar Rapids and is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area.