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.
Albany is a city in Benton and Linn Counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located in the Willamette Valley and is the county seat of Linn County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 40,852. As of 2007, Albany was the 11th largest city in Oregon. The estimated population was 48,770 in 2008.