I don't pay attention to the commercial providers very much but look at the Coop system's performance more than a little. You may be interested to have a look starting with the Power Generation component for our region of the country.
https://www.aeci.org/about-us/annual-report-financials/
Coops have a unique access to financing so that helps a lot but our base provider has managed to hold our cost of power to about 5 cents so far. Transmission and distribution add 8 to 10 cents to that.
Here on our little state highway we didn't get power until the 50s and we didn't get water until sometime in the 70s. I was here for both events, just barely for the first. Strangely enough, ground water is scarce in our area and the quality is horrible with iron and sulfur aplenty. You don't drink it so much as chew it and you will never need a laxative. Some people say that if they had to choose they would rather do without electricity than rural water. Coops provide both to us as well as fiber to the home internet.
A lot of the time I think the only valuable thing our country has done in the last 80 years is win WWII. Before that there was WPA construction and the REC bill.
“Many ancient cisterns have been discovered in some parts of Jerusalem and throughout what is today Israel/Palestine. At the site believed by some to be that of the biblical city of Ai (Khirbet et-Tell), a large cistern dating back to around 2500 BC was discovered that had a capacity of nearly 1,700 m3 (60,000 cu ft). It was carved out of a solid rock, lined with large stones, and sealed with clay to keep from leaking.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainwater_harvesting