Businesses operating a monopoly under the aegis of a PUBLIC utility commission are not "private." In some respects, they resemble more a private contractor for government than they do a private company.
More proof of this. I have lived in cities where a lot of the upper level jobs at the gas company and electric company are held by relations and friends of the prominent political hacks in town. Utilities were patronage havens and hack havens
The tax collection function they perform on your utility bill.
The way they collude with the PUC to pump the rate base with everything from tree trimming to line maintenance.
The carbon "market" as a tool for redistribution of income (and if you think the utility companies in California didn't want that, I give you John Bryson).
Reporting people without a warrant for odd electrical usage patterns as indication of a drug operation.
Need more?