Connecticut General Statutes 7-233e – Powers
(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.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 7-233e
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Bonds: means bonds issued by a municipal electric energy cooperative pursuant to this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Electric utility: means any electric public service company, as defined in section 16-1. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Notes: means notes issued by a municipal electric energy cooperative pursuant to this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Personal property: All property that is not real property.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- 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. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
(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 that 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, 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 subdivision, 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 or become a market participant pursuant to rules and procedures of the regional independent system operator, as defined in section 16-1; and to acquire, own, hold and dispose of stock or other ownership interests in, or evidences of indebtedness of, any corporation or business entity that 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;
(27) (A) To enter into agreements with any entity to receive or procure the supply, or the prepayment of the supply, of natural gas for the sole benefit of its member, the City of Norwich Department of Public Utilities, a municipal gas utility, provided (i) such supply, or prepayment of supply, is consumed or used by said utility or by any retail customer of said utility entirely within the geographic boundaries of the city of Norwich or the town of Preston, and (ii) no part of such supply, or prepayment of supply, shall be consumed or used within or transported to any other municipality or utility, territory, land held in trust by the United States on behalf of a Native American tribe or land located within a Native American reservation or other jurisdiction;
(B) No power granted to a municipal cooperative pursuant to this subdivision shall be exercised so as to impair any existing right, power or privilege of any gas company, as defined in section 16-1;
(28) 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
(29) 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 that might be exercised by a natural person or a private corporation in connection with similar property and affairs.