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.
Akron is a village in Tuscola County of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 461 at the 2000 census. The village is located on the boundary between Akron Township on the north and Fairgrove Township on the south, with the village area approximately evenly split between the two. The Akron post office, with ZIP code 48701, also serves the southern and western portions of Akron Township, as well as portions of northern Fairgrove Township, most of eastern Wisner Township, and smaller portions of western Columbia Township and Almer Township.