Oklahoma Statutes
Title 17. Corporation Commission
§17-158.27. General supervision by Commission - Rate investigations - Notice of proposed rate increases - Petition by member-consumers - Exemption of rural electric cooperatives.

A. The Corporation Commission shall have general supervision over all associations or cooperative corporations as defined herein with power to fix and establish rates and to prescribe rules affecting their services, operation, and the management and conduct of their business. It shall have full visitorial and inquisitorial power to examine such associations or cooperative corporations and keep informed as to their general conditions, their capitalization, rates, plants, equipments, apparatus, and other property owned, leased, controlled or operated, the value of same, the management, conduct, operation, practices and services; not only with respect to the adequacy, security and accommodation afforded by their service, but also with respect to their compliance with the provisions of the Retail Electric Supplier Certified Territory Act, and with the Constitution and laws of this state, and with the orders of the Commission. The provisions of this section shall not be applicable to generation and transmission associations or cooperative corporations, or transmission associations or cooperative corporations.

B. 1. An association or cooperative corporation shall be subject to rate investigations by the Commission pursuant to subsection A of this section unless a proposed increase in rates and charges does not exceed three percent (3%) based on the previous twelve (12) months revenue generated by the existing rates; provided however, that such association or cooperative corporation shall be subject to subsection A of this section if:
2. Each such association or cooperative corporation not subject to rate investigation, at least ninety (90) days before the effective date of any proposed rate increase, shall notify the Commission and each of its member-consumers of the proposed rate increase. Notice to the Commission shall include a verified statement showing the then total number of member-consumers of the association or cooperative corporation.
Notice by the association or cooperative corporation to its member-consumers shall:
3. The member-consumers of an association or a cooperative corporation may petition the Commission to examine and determine the reasonableness of the rates and charges proposed by the association or cooperative corporation pursuant to subparagraph b of paragraph 1 of this subsection. The form of such a petition shall be substantially in compliance with subsection C of this section. A petition substantially in compliance with such form shall not be deemed invalid due to minor errors in its form.
4. If, by the effective date of this proposed increase in rates and charges, the Commission has received petitions from less than the number of member-consumers as set out in subparagraph b of paragraph 1 of this subsection, requesting that the Commission examine the proposed increase in rates and charges, the Commission shall immediately certify such fact to the association or cooperative corporation. If, on or before the effective date of the proposed increase in rates and charges, the Commission has received petitions from the number of member-consumers as set out in subparagraph b of paragraph 1 of this subsection or more, the Commission shall notify the association or cooperative corporation that it will examine and determine the reasonableness of the proposed increase in rates and charges. Rates and charges established by the Commission or by an association or a cooperative corporation pursuant to this section shall be in force for not less than one (1) year and no further increases in rates and charges shall be permitted during said one-year period.
5. No cooperative corporation or association shall have the right to receive more than one rate increase per year for any reason or under any procedures.
6. In addition to the procedure for petition prior to any proposed increase in rates and charges pursuant to paragraphs 1 through 4 of this subsection, the member-consumers of an association or cooperative corporation may at any time petition the Commission to declare the association or cooperative corporation be subject to full scale rate investigation. If the Commission determines that a majority of the member-consumers of an association or a cooperative corporation have properly petitioned that the association or cooperative corporation be subject to full scale rate regulations, the Commission shall certify such fact to the association or cooperative corporation and thereafter the association or cooperative corporation shall be subject to full scale rate investigation by the Commission until at least a majority of the member-consumers of the association or cooperative corporation properly petition that the association or cooperative corporation shall no longer be subject to such full scale rate investigations by the Commission. The form of such a petition shall substantially comply with subsection C of this section.
A petition substantially in compliance with the form pursuant to subsection C of this section shall not be deemed invalid due to minor errors in its form.
7. Paragraphs 1 through 6 of this subsection apply only to the rates and charges and shall have no effect on the Commission’s jurisdiction over the associations or cooperative corporations or the rules and regulations governing the operations of electric utilities.
8. Each association or cooperative corporation, when determining how rates and charges, established under paragraph 2 of this subsection, are to be allocated to the different rate classes, shall apportion such rates and charges in a manner which reflects, as closely as practicable, the costs of providing service to that class.
9. In no event, and under no circumstances, shall the procedures herein provided be utilized for the purpose of establishing special competitive rates in any area in which a cooperative corporation is in direct competition with another regulated retail electric supplier.
C. 1. A petition requesting the Commission to examine and determine the reasonableness of a proposed increase in rates and charges shall be in substantially the following form:
2. A petition requesting rate regulation of an association or cooperative corporation shall be in substantially the following form:
3. Petitions may only be signed by the member-consumer of the association or cooperative corporation.
D. Upon proceedings brought by an interested person or by action of the Commission, the Commission shall have the jurisdiction to enforce compliance with the Retail Electric Supplier Certified Territory Act, and shall have jurisdiction to prohibit furnishing retail electric service by any retail electric supplier except in its certified territory or territories, or where lawfully serving, and in connection with such enforcement and prohibition to exercise all powers herein or otherwise granted to the Commission.
E. 1. Rural electric cooperatives, which are owned by the member-consumers they serve, are regulated by the member-consumers themselves acting through an elected governing board. It is declared that the regulation by the Commission under this section may be duplicative of the self-regulation by the rural electric cooperative and may be neither necessary nor cost-effective. It is therefore the purpose of this subsection to determine the necessity of regulation by the Commission by allowing the member-consumers of a rural electric cooperative to exempt themselves from regulation by the Commission except as provided herein.
2. Except as otherwise provided in paragraphs 4, 5, 6 and 7 of this subsection, regulation by the Commission shall not apply to rural electric cooperatives which comply with paragraph 3 of this subsection.
3. To be exempt under paragraph 2 of this subsection from all Commission regulation, except as provided for in this section, a cooperative shall poll its members as follows:
4. In the event the member-consumers have voted, pursuant to paragraph 3 of this subsection, to exempt themselves from regulation by the Commission, any such cooperative may vote no more than once every twelve (12) months to place said cooperative under the regulation of the Commission, as provided in this section. Said question shall be submitted to the member-consumers of the rural electric cooperative if at least five percent (5%) of the members of the cooperative sign a petition requesting such an election. Such petition shall be submitted to the membership in the same manner as provided for in paragraph 3 of this subsection.
5. Each rural electric cooperative which has voted to exempt itself from Commission regulation, when determining how rates and charges established after such exemption are to be allocated to the different rate classes, shall apportion such rates and charges in a manner which reflects, as closely as practicable, the costs of providing service to that class. Each cooperative which has exempted itself from Commission regulation shall file and maintain a copy of all current rates and charges with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
6. In no event, and under no circumstances, shall rates and charges established hereunder be utilized for the purpose of establishing special competitive rates in any area in which a cooperative is in direct competition with another regulated retail utility supplier.
7. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, the Commission shall retain jurisdiction over all cooperatives who have voted to exempt themselves from Commission regulation:
Added by Laws 1971, c. 113, § 7. Amended by Laws 1988, c. 107, § 2, emerg. eff. April 4, 1988; Laws 1993, c. 231, § 1, emerg. eff. May 26, 1993; Laws 2002, c. 281, § 1, eff. July 1, 2002; Laws 2004, c. 14, § 1, emerg. eff. March 23, 2004.

Structure Oklahoma Statutes