2023 Oklahoma Statutes › Title 17. Corporation Commission › §17-158.24. Fixing boundaries of certified territories - Protests - Hearings by Commission.

A. Except as otherwise provided, no retail electric supplier shall furnish retail electric service in the certified territory of another retail electric supplier.
B. Except as otherwise provided in this section, the boundaries of the certified territory of each retail electric supplier are hereby set as a line or lines substantially equidistant between its existing distribution lines and the nearest existing distribution lines of any other retail electric supplier in every direction, with the result that there is hereby certified to each retail electric supplier such unincorporated area which in its entirety is located substantially in closer proximity to one of its existing distribution lines than to the nearest existing distribution line of any other retail electric supplier.
C. (1) On or before ninety (90) days after the effective date of this act, or, when requested in writing by a retail electric supplier and for good cause shown, such further time as the Commission may fix by order, each retail electric supplier shall file with the Commission a map or maps showing all of its existing distribution lines. The Commission shall prepare or cause to be prepared within ninety (90) days thereafter a map or maps of uniform scale to show, accurately and clearly, the boundaries of the certified territory of each retail electric supplier as established under Section 4 B, and shall issue such map or maps of certified territory to each retail electric supplier. Any retail electric supplier or municipality or beneficial trust thereof engaged in the furnishing of electric service who feels itself aggrieved by reason of a certification of territory pursuant to this section may protest the certification of territory, not to exceed one township in a single protest, within a one hundred twenty-day period after issuance of the map of certified territory by the Commission; and the Commission shall have the power, after hearing, to revise or vacate such certified territories or portions thereof.
(2) In such hearing, the Commission shall be guided by the following conditions as they existed on the effective date of this act:
(a) The proximity of existing distribution lines to such certified territory.
(b) Which supplier was first furnishing retail electric service, and the age of existing facilities, in the area.
(c) Which supplier is the predominant retail electric supplier in the area.
(d) The adequacy and dependability of existing distribution lines and facilities to provide dependable high quality retail electric service at reasonable costs.
(e) The elimination and prevention of duplication of electric lines and facilities supplying such territory.
In its determination of such protest, the Commission hearing shall be de novo; and neither supplier shall bear the burden of proof.
D. In each unincorporated area, where the Commission shall determine that the existing distribution lines of two or more retail electric suppliers are so intertwined or located that Section 4 B cannot reasonably be applied, the Commission shall, after hearing, certify the service territory or territories for the retail electric suppliers under the provisions of Section 4 C (2) hereof.
Laws 1971, c. 113, § 4.