Substitute Senate Bill No. 939
Substitute Senate Bill No. 939
PUBLIC ACT NO. 97-313
AN ACT CONCERNING MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC ENERGY
COOPERATIVES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE BY
CERTAIN MUNICIPALITIES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 7-233b of the general
statutes is repealed and the following is
substituted in lieu thereof:
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the following meanings, unless a
different meaning clearly appears from the context
and any use of plural terms herein shall be deemed
to refer to the singular thereof:
(1) "Area of operation" means the geographic
area served by a municipal electric utility at the
time it becomes a member of a municipal electric
energy cooperative pursuant to this chapter and
such other areas as the municipal electric energy
cooperative may serve pursuant to contract entered
into under the provisions of this chapter;
(2) "Bonds" means bonds issued by a municipal
electric energy cooperative pursuant to this
chapter;
(3) "Cost" means, in addition to the usual
connotations thereof, the cost of all or any
property, rights, easements, privileges,
agreements and franchises deemed by the municipal
electric energy cooperative to be necessary or
useful and convenient to a project or projects or
in connection therewith, including discount on
bonds, cost of issuance of bonds, engineering and
inspection costs and legal expenses, cost of
financial, professional and other estimates
advice, organization, administrative, operating
and other expenses of the municipal electric
energy cooperative prior to and during the
acquisition or construction of a project or
projects and all such other expenses as may be
necessary or incident to the financing,
acquisition, construction and completion of said
project or projects or part thereof and the
placing of the same in operation, and also such
provision or reserves for working capital,
operating, maintenance or replacement expenses or
for reserves for the payment of the principal of
or interest on bonds during or after such
acquisition or construction as the municipal
electric energy cooperative may determine, and
reimbursements to the municipal electric energy
cooperative or any member thereof or any other
participant in such project or projects of any
moneys theretofore expended for the purposes of
the municipal electric energy cooperative;
(4) "Electric utility" means any electric
public service company, as defined in section
16-1;
(5) "Governing body" means the board of
commissioners of a municipal electric utility or
such other duly elected or appointed officials
charged by law with managing the affairs of a
municipal electric utility;
(6) "Member" means any municipal electric
utility within the state which has been in
continuous operation for at least five years and
whose governing body authorizes membership in, and
which becomes a member of, a municipal electric
energy cooperative;
(7) "Municipal electric energy cooperative" or
"municipal cooperative" means a separate legal
entity hereafter created by concurrent resolutions
of two or more municipal electric utilities to
exercise any of the powers as provided in this
chapter in connection with the acquisition,
construction, reconstruction, operation, repair,
extension or improvement of electric power
generation or transmission facilities, or the
acquisition of any interest therein or of any
capacity thereof;
(8) "Municipal electric utility" means an
electric department, agency or other body of a
municipality which provides for the production,
supply and/or distribution of electric energy to
the inhabitants or any portion thereof as well as
others, which department, agency or other body has
been established in accordance with applicable
provisions of law;
(9) "Municipality" means any town, city or
borough located within the state and any district
as defined in section 7-324 or special services
district established under chapter 105a which is
authorized to produce, supply or distribute
electric energy;
(10) "Notes" means notes issued by a municipal
electric energy cooperative pursuant to this
chapter;
(11) "Participant" means any member of a
municipal electric energy cooperative, a nonmember
municipal electric utility, an electric utility,
or any other public or private electric power
entity located within or without the state, any of
which may contract for services with a municipal
electric energy cooperative pursuant to the
provisions of this chapter;
(12) "Project" means any plant or plants,
hydro plants, works, system, facilities, or real
or personal property, together with all parts
thereof and appurtenances thereto, used or useful
in connection with the generation, production,
transmission, purchase, sale, exchange or
interchange of electric power or energy, or any
interest therein or right to capacity thereof.
"Project" also includes stock or other ownership
interests in, or evidences of indebtedness of, any
corporation OR BUSINESS ENTITY which constructs
electric power generation or transmission
facilities or generates, produces, transmits,
purchases, sells or exchanges electric power and
energy to, or insures the liabilities of, public
or private electric power entities located within
or without the state, provided the outstanding
stock of such corporation is owned in whole or in
part by such public or private electric power
entities;
(13) "Real property" includes lands,
structures, franchises, and interests in land,
including lands under water and riparian rights,
and any and all things and rights usually included
within said term, and includes not only fees
simple absolute but also any and all lesser
interests, such as easements, rights-of-way, uses,
leases, licenses and all other incorporeal
hereditaments, and every estate, interest or
right, legal or equitable, including terms of
years and liens thereon by way of judgments,
mortgages or otherwise, and also claims for damage
to real estate.
Sec. 2. Section 7-233e of the general statutes
is repealed and the following is substituted in
lieu thereof:
(a) AS USED IN THIS SECTION, "PERSON WITHOUT
THE STATE" MEANS A PERSON LOCATED OUTSIDE THE
STATE THAT COMPLIES WITH THE STANDARDS FOR
INTERCONNECTION TO THE TRANSMISSION OR
DISTRIBUTION FACILITIES OF THE PUBLIC UTILITY TO
WHICH SUCH PERSON IS INTERCONNECTED.
(b) A municipal electric energy cooperative
created in the manner provided in this chapter
shall constitute a public body corporate and
politic, and in furtherance of its purpose of
providing facilities for the generation and
transmission of electric power such municipal
electric energy cooperative shall be deemed to be
exercising an essential governmental function and
shall have the following powers, to wit:
(1) To adopt and have a common seal and to
alter the same;
(2) To sue and be sued;
(3) To contract and be contracted with;
(4) To plan, acquire, construct, reconstruct,
operate, maintain, repair, extend or improve one
or more projects within or without the state; or
to acquire any interest in or any right to
capacity of such a project and to act as agent, or
designate one or more of the other participants in
such project to act as agent, for all the
participants in such project in connection with
the planning, acquisition, construction,
reconstruction, operation, maintenance, repair,
extension or improvement of such project;
(5) To investigate the desirability of and
necessity for additional sources and supplies of
electric power, and to make such studies, surveys
and estimates as may be necessary to determine the
feasibility and cost of any such additional
sources and supplies of electric power;
(6) To cooperate with private electric
utilities, member and nonmember municipal electric
utilities and other public or private electric
power entities, within and without the state, OR
WITH ANY PERSON WITHOUT THE STATE, in the
development of such sources and supplies of
electric power;
(7) To procure from the United States of
America or any agency or instrumentality thereof,
or from any state or agency or instrumentality
thereof, any consents, authorizations or approvals
which may be requisite to enable any project
within its powers to be carried forward;
(8) To do and perform any acts and things
authorized by the act under, through or by means
of its cooperative utility board, officers, agents
or employees;
(9) To acquire, hold, use and dispose of its
income, revenues, funds and moneys;
(10) To acquire, own, hire, use, operate and
dispose of personal property;
(11) To acquire, own, use, lease, operate and
dispose of real property and interests in real
property, and to make improvements thereon;
(12) To grant the use, by lease or otherwise,
and to make charges for the use, of any property
or facility owned or controlled by it;
(13) To borrow money and to issue its
negotiable bonds or notes, and to enter into any
agreements with the purchasers or holders of such
bonds or notes or with others for their benefit;
(14) Subject to any agreement with bondholders
or noteholders, to invest moneys of the municipal
cooperative not required for immediate use,
including proceeds from the sale of any bonds or
notes, in such obligations, securities and other
investments as the cooperative utility board shall
deem prudent and in accordance with the laws of
the state regarding the investment of public
moneys;
(15) To exercise the right of eminent domain,
subject to the limitations contained herein;
(16) To fix and determine the location and
character of, and all other matters in connection
with, any and all projects it may be authorized to
acquire, hold, establish, effectuate, operate or
control;
(17) To contract with any electric utility,
any member or nonmember municipal electric
utility, [or] any public or private electric power
entity within or without the state, OR ANY PERSON
WITHOUT THE STATE, for the sale, exchange or
transmission of electric power or energy generated
by any project, or any interest therein or any
right to capacity thereof, on such terms and for
such period of time as the cooperative utility
board shall determine;
(18) To purchase, sell, exchange or transmit
electric power and energy within and without the
state, to any electric utility, any member or
nonmember municipal electric utility or any other
public or private electric power entity, OR ANY
PERSON WITHOUT THE STATE; and to enter into
agreements with respect to such purchase, sale,
exchange, or transmission to any electric utility,
any member or nonmember municipal electric utility
or any other public or private electric power
entity; as one means of implementing the power
granted by this subsection (18), a municipal
electric energy cooperative, if its cooperative
utility board shall so determine, may enter into
or become a participant in the New England Power
Pool; and to acquire, own, hold and dispose of
stock or other ownership interests in, or
evidences of indebtedness of, any corporation OR
BUSINESS ENTITY which constructs electric power
generation or transmission facilities or
generates, produces, transmits, purchases, sells
or exchanges electric power and energy to, or
insures the liabilities of, public or private
electric power entities located within or without
the state, provided the outstanding stock of such
corporation is owned in whole or in part by such
public or private electric power entities;
(19) To procure insurance against any losses
in connection with its property, operations or
assets in such amounts and from such insurers as
the cooperative utility board deems desirable;
(20) To contract for and to accept any gifts
or grants or loans of funds or property or
financial or other aid in any form from the United
States of America or any agency or instrumentality
thereof, or from any other source, and to comply,
subject to the provisions of this chapter, with
the terms and conditions thereof;
(21) To mortgage, or otherwise hypothecate,
any or all of its property or assets to secure the
payment of its bonds, notes or other obligations;
(22) To submit to arbitration any disputes
with others or among its members;
(23) To produce electric power by the use of
cogeneration technology or renewable fuel
resources, as defined in section 16-1;
(24) To contract for the purchase or exchange
of electricity produced by a person using
cogeneration technology or renewable fuel
resources, as defined in section 16-1, or for the
sale or exchange of electricity produced by the
municipal cooperative to such person, provided
such purchase, sale or exchange is subject to the
rates and conditions of service established in
accordance with section 16-243a;
(25) To provide in any agreement executed in
connection with a project by or among a municipal
cooperative and other participants in such project
that, if one or more of such participants defaults
in its obligations under such agreement including,
without limitation, the payment of principal or
interest on their indebtedness issued with respect
to such project, the municipal cooperative and the
other nondefaulting participants, if any, shall be
required to pay such obligations, including the
principal of and the interest on such
indebtedness, for which the defaulting participant
or participants were to have paid, upon such terms
and conditions and with such limitations as the
cooperative utility board may determine;
(26) To guarantee, in connection with any
project, the punctual payment of the principal of
and interest on the indebtedness or other
contractual obligations of any of the participants
in such project; [and]
(27) TO EXERCISE AND PERFORM ALL OR PART OF
ITS POWER AND FUNCTIONS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF
PURCHASING, SELLING, EXCHANGING OR TRANSMITTING
ELECTRIC POWER AND ENERGY ON A WHOLESALE BASIS, AS
PROVIDED IN THIS CHAPTER, THROUGH ONE OR MORE
WHOLLY OWNED OR PARTLY OWNED CORPORATIONS OR OTHER
BUSINESS ENTITIES; AND
[(27)] (28) To exercise all other powers not
inconsistent with the state constitution or the
United States Constitution, which may be
reasonably necessary or appropriate for or
incidental to the effectuation of its authorized
purposes or to the exercise of any of the
foregoing powers, and generally to exercise in
connection with its property and affairs, and in
connection with property within its control, any
and all powers which might be exercised by a
natural person or a private corporation in
connection with similar property and affairs.
Sec. 3. Section 7-233j of the general statutes
is repealed and the following is substituted in
lieu thereof:
The municipal cooperative is authorized to (1)
interconnect the lines of its system with those of
other electric systems within or without the
state, and to enter into contracts for the sale of
electric energy within or without the state to
electric systems constructed, owned, controlled or
operated by any electric utility, member or
nonmember municipal electric utility or any other
public or private electric power entity, OR ANY
PERSON WITHOUT THE STATE; and (2) enter into
contracts with other electric utilities, member or
nonmember municipal electric utilities, or any
other public or private electric power entities
within or without the state for standby power upon
suitable terms, and for the sale of any surplus
power not required for its own operation for sale
to any electric utility, member or nonmember
municipal electric utility or any other public or
private electric power entity within or without
the state.
Sec. 4. (NEW) (a) Notwithstanding any
provision of a special act or municipal charter to
the contrary, any municipality that owns or
operates one or more plants for the manufacture or
distribution of electricity pursuant to section
7-213 of the general statutes or any special act,
may provide telecommunications service, as defined
in section 16-247a of the general statutes, other
than community antenna television service, to
inhabitants within the territorial limits of the
area in which the municipality is authorized to
provide electric service. No municipality may seek
authority to provide telecommunications service
pursuant to this section until affirmative action
for that purpose has been approved by the chief
executive officer and has received a two-thirds
vote of its legislative body or in any town in
which the legislative body is a town meeting, by
the board of selectmen.
(b) Any municipality seeking to exercise the
authority granted by this section shall be subject
to all certification requirements imposed by
statute or order of the Department of Public
Utility Control upon persons, firms or
corporations certified to provide intrastate
telecommunications services pursuant to section
16-247g of the general statutes.
(c) Any municipality exercising the authority
granted by this section may finance any capital
expenditures necessary to provide
telecommunications service other than community
antenna television service, including but not
limited to, the costs to acquire or construct
necessary systems or facilities, in accordance
with the provisions of chapter 109 of the general
statutes.
Sec. 5. This act shall take effect July 1,
1997.
Approved July 8, 1997