What kind of system allows them to control water, gas, and electricity flow to a certain house?
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I am not exactly sure what you are asking, but most public utilities are monopolies by political choice, and often exist because they have replaced private suppliers which were monopolies or near-monopolies and could not be trusted (well, that was mostly the argument anyway) to consider the best interests of the entire population when it came to pricing and provision of services to everyone.
Just take as a very obvious example, how fire departments were once often private, so only served some people, or would require payment before fighting a fire if the burning location was not a service subscriber. Public interests were seen as best served by making the service one provided by the government and supported by charging all citizens for the service, so fire departments became government owned and operated entities. The same things have happened with power, sewer, and water, in many places. Not everywhere has public sewer, public water, or public power though, and the exact ownership and regulatory structure/oversight varies from place to place.
The idea is that the needs are so basic and so universal that it is seen as unjust, I suppose is the best word, to allow private corporations to profit from providing the services while choosing, based on profit considerations only, to charge extreme prices or to deny service to some (generally more remote locations requiring a huge investment on infrastructure like pipes or wires but with no way to recover the cost without charging absurd rates so the people couldn’t afford it even if the utility were to provide it).
Public utilities provide the services the same way a private utility would. They build and run the central facility, or buy on the market like anyone would (for some things like gas or electricity) and distribute the service by installing the required infrastructure. They just have a much more strictly controlled pricing and delivery structure than a private provider would. Where the utility providers are private, or semi-private, the local government usually has a lot of regulations telling them what the can, must, and cannot do, but being private corporations, there are some limitations that can be imposed on how the utilities run themselves. A public utility is owned by the “People” (the government, in some way or another) so is supposedly more responsive to the needs of the people being served.
Whether public, private, or semi-private, though, they all do pretty much the same thing: run the systems, maintain the infrastructure, and make sure the clients (households, say) are provided with the service, however that needs to be done.
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