2023 New York Laws › TCP - Transportation Corporations › Article 2 - Gas and Electric Corporations. › 11 - Powers.

§  11. Powers. Every such corporation shall have the following powers:
1. A gas corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall have power
to manufacture  gas,  and  to  acquire  thermal  energy  or  natural  or
artificial  gas  and  to  mix  the gases and to sell and furnish thermal
energy for heating or cooling or gas for light, heat or  power;  and  to
lay  conductors,  pipes,  conduits,  ducts and other fixtures for gas or
thermal energy networks in the streets, highways and public  places,  in
each  city,  village  and  town  in  the county or counties named in its
certificate  of  incorporation,  with  the  consent  of  the   municipal
authorities  of  such  city,  village or town, and under such reasonable
regulations as they may prescribe.
2. Every corporation having authority under any general or special law
or under any charter or franchise, to lay down, erect or maintain pipes,
conduits, ducts or  other  fixtures  in,  over  or  under  the  streets,
highways  and  public  places  of  any  municipality  for the purpose of
furnishing or distributing natural gas or thermal  energy,  may  acquire
and supply for public use artificial gas or thermal energy.
Where  any  gas  corporation  is  serving natural gas under permits or
franchises permitting the laying or maintaining of mains  or  pipes  and
conveying  natural  gas,  and  the  supply  of  natural  gas  has become
inadequate or insufficient to give reasonable service  to  consumers  in
the  municipalities  served  by  it,  such  gas  corporation  may supply
artificial gas or a mixture of natural and artificial gases  or  thermal
energy under such permits or franchises.
3.  An  electric  corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall
have power to generate, acquire and supply electricity or thermal energy
for heat, cooling or power in cities, towns  and  villages  within  this
state, and to light the streets, highways and public places thereof, and
the public and private buildings therein; and to make, sell or lease all
machines,  instruments, apparatus and other equipments therefor, and for
transmitting and distributing electricity or  thermal  energy,  to  lay,
erect  and  construct  suitable  wires  or  other  conductors,  with the
necessary poles, pipes, thermal energy networks or  other  fixtures  in,
on, over and under the streets, avenues, public parks and places in such
cities, towns or villages, with the consent of the municipal authorities
thereof,  and  in  such manner and under such reasonable regulations, as
they may prescribe.
3-a. An electric corporation and a gas corporation  shall  have  power
and  authority  to  acquire such real estate as may be necessary for its
corporate purposes and the right of way  through  any  property  in  the
manner prescribed by the eminent domain procedure law.
3-b.  The construction, use and maintenance by an electric corporation
of transmission, distribution and service lines  and  wires  or  thermal
energy  networks  in,  over or under any street, highway or public place
and the construction, use  and  maintenance  by  a  gas  corporation  of
transmission,  distribution  and service pipes, conduits, ducts or other
fixtures in, over or under any trees, highway or public place, as may be
necessary for its corporate purposes, are hereby declared to  be  public
uses and purposes.
Where  any  person  or  corporation  other than the state, a political
subdivision thereof, or a municipality is the owner of any right,  title
or  interest  in  or to any street, highway or public place, or in or to
the land on which the street, highway or public  place  is  located,  an
electric  corporation  or  a  gas  corporation  is hereby authorized and
empowered to acquire the right to construct, use and maintain such lines
or wires and such pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures, in, over  or
under  such  street, highway or public place, from such owner or owners,
by petition in the manner prescribed by section four hundred two of  the

eminent domain procedure law to the supreme court in the county in which
such  street, highway or public place is situated. The corporation shall
file with the court a  certificate  of  the  public  service  commission
certifying  that the right sought to be acquired is necessary and in the
public interest and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence as  to
the matters lawfully certified therein.
After  a hearing on such petition and any answer thereto, if the court
shall find that such right to construct, use and maintain  is  necessary
for  the  corporate  purposes  of  the  corporation,  it shall enter its
judgment adjudging that such right is necessary for the public  use  and
that  the  corporation  is  entitled  to construct, use and maintain its
lines or wires or pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in,  over  or
under such street, highway or public place and adjudging pursuant to the
eminent  domain  procedure  law  the  compensation  to  be  made  by the
corporation to the owner or owners.
4. Any two or more domestic gas corporations,  electric  corporations,
gas and electric corporations, and any other domestic corporation formed
for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  any  business in which domestic gas
corporations, electric corporations or gas and electric corporations may
engage, may merge or consolidate in accordance with  the  procedure  and
with  the  effect  set forth in article nine of the business corporation
law.
5. A corporation mentioned in this article or incorporated under or by
any general or special law of this state for the  purpose  of  supplying
for  public use electricity for light, heat or power in cities, towns or
villages in this state, upon filing a certificate of amendment therefor,
to which is annexed the consent required  by  section  one  hundred  and
eleven of this chapter, shall have all the rights, privileges and powers
and be subject to all the restrictions of district steam corporations.
6.  The  term  "municipal authorities" as used in subdivisions one and
three of this section, shall be deemed to be the local legislative  body
of  a  city,  the board of trustees of a village and the town board of a
town. All consents in writing for the doing of acts  mentioned  in  such
subdivisions   given  before  April  fourteenth,  nineteen  hundred  and
twenty-two,  in  writing  by   the   highway   commissioners   or   town
superintendent  of  highways  or  the  town  board  of  any  town to any
corporation organized under the provisions  of  this  article  shall  be
deemed  to be the consents of the municipal authorities required by this
section.
7. Subdivisions three and three-a of this section shall not  apply  to
any merchant transmission company which:
(a) commences and ends in the state of New York;
(b)  through  its  employees, agents, representatives, or assigns, has
represented  in  testimony  that  the   construction   of   such   power
transmission  lines  will  increase  electric  rates  in any part of the
state; and
(c) which applied for and did not receive an early  designation  as  a
national  interest  electric  transmission  corridor  under  an  act  of
congress commonly known as the Energy Policy Act of 2005.