Delaware Code Title 26 Sec. 203A – Certificate of public convenience and necessity; abandonment or …
(a) (1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section and §§ 102, 201, 202 and Chapter 10 of this title, and excluding electric suppliers, no individual, copartnership, association, corporation, joint stock company, agency or department of the State, cooperative, or the lessees, trustees or receivers thereof, shall begin the business of a public utility nor shall any public utility begin any extension of its regulated public utility business or operations without having first obtained from the Commission a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity requires or will require the operation of such regulated public utility business or extension.
(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Commission approval shall be required for any transfer of a certificate of public convenience between public utility companies providing telecommunications services that operate under common ownership.
(3) This section shall not be construed to require any public utility to secure such a certificate for any construction, modifications, upgrades or extensions within the perimeter of any territory already served by it.
(4) The Commission, after hearing, on the complaint of any public utility claiming to be adversely affected by any proposed extension, may make such order and prescribe such terms and conditions with respect to the proposed extension as may be required by the public convenience and necessity.
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 26 Sec. 203A
- Commission: means the Public Service Commission. See Delaware Code Title 26 Sec. 102
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
- 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.
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- 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.
- Public utility: includes every individual, partnership, association, corporation, joint stock company, agency or department of the State or any association of individuals engaged in the prosecution in common of a productive enterprise (commonly called a "cooperative"), their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, that now operates or hereafter may operate for public use within this State, (however, electric cooperatives shall not be permitted directly or through an affiliate to engage in the production, sale or distribution of propane gas or heating oil), any natural gas, electric (excluding electric suppliers as defined in § 1001 of this title), electric transmission by other than a public utility over which the Commission has no supervisory or regulatory jurisdiction pursuant to § 202(a) or (g) of this title, water, wastewater (which shall include sanitary sewer charge), telecommunications (excluding telephone services provided by cellular technology or by domestic public land mobile radio service) service, system, plant or equipment. See Delaware Code Title 26 Sec. 102
- State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
- system: shall mean a facility within this State which is constructed in whole or in part in, on, under or over any highway, road, street, alley, or other public place and which is operated to perform the service of receiving and amplifying the signals of 1 or more radio and/or television broadcasting stations and distributing such signals by cable, wire or other means to members of the public who subscribe to such service; provided that nothing herein is intended to prohibit any system from engaging in any other activity not expressly prohibited by law; except that such definition shall not include (i) any system which serves fewer than 50 subscribers; or (ii) any system which serves only the residents of 1 or more apartment dwellings or mobile home or trailer parks under common ownership, control or management, and commercial establishments located on the premises of such dwellings; or (iii) telephone, telegraph or electric utilities in those cases where the activity of such utility in connection with a cable system is limited to leasing or renting to cable systems, cables, wires, poles, towers or other electronic equipment or rights to use real property as part of, or for use in connection with, the operation of a cable system. See Delaware Code Title 26 Sec. 102
(b) (1) If any individual, copartnership, association, corporation, joint stock company, agency or department of the State, cooperative, or the lessees, trustees or receivers thereof (or the predecessor in interest of any such person, party or legal entity), was in bona fide operation within this State on June 28, 1974, of any electronic communication in whole or in part by wire (other than telephone, including domestic public land mobile radio or telegraph service, system, plant or equipment) including, but not limited to, cable television service, system, plant or equipment, for public use, the Commission shall issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing such person, party or legal entity without further proceedings to continue operating the said service, system, plant or equipment, to the same extent as said operations were being operated on June 28, 1974, such certificate to identify by number and date of issuance the certificate under which the applicant is carrying on such operation, if the application for such certificate of public convenience and necessity is filed with the Commission on a form approved by the Commission within 120 days after June 28, 1974. Pending the determination of any such application the continuance of such operation without a certificate of public convenience and necessity shall be lawful.
(2) Interruptions of service in such operations over which such person, party or legal entity, or the predecessor in interest thereof, had no control, shall not be considered in determining whether or not there has been an abandonment of any such operations.
(3) In issuing any certificate of public convenience and necessity under this subsection, the Commission, in its discretion, may define or limit the territory or territories in this State within which the activities authorized by the certificate may be conducted, but in no case shall such territory or territories be smaller than the territory or territories in this State in which the applicant was in actual bona fide operation on June 28, 1974.
(4) The application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity under this subsection shall be verified and shall contain such information as the Commission deems necessary to show that the applicant was not engaged merely in isolated, incidental, intermittent, sporadic and infrequent operations.
(5) The Commission may adopt and approve such forms as it deems necessary for this purpose.
(c) A public utility that provides telecommunications services may abandon or discontinue, in whole or in part, the provision of any competitive retail telecommunications services; provided, however, that such utility shall provide the Commission with contemporaneous notice of abandonment or discontinuance of all of its competitive retail telecommunications services in the State.
(d) (1) Subject to the provisions of Chapter 10 and § 706(c) of this title and excluding electric suppliers, no public utility shall abandon or discontinue, in whole or in part, any regulated public utility business, operations or services provided under a certificate of public convenience and necessity or otherwise which are subject to jurisdiction of the Commission without first having received Commission approval for such abandonment or discontinuance.
(2) Applications for such approval shall be made to the Commission in writing, verified by oath or affirmation and be in such form and contain such information as the Commission may from time to time require.
(3) The Commission shall approve any such application when it finds that the utility has met its burden of proving that the abandonment or discontinuance is reasonable, necessary and not unduly disruptive to the present or future public convenience and necessity.
(4) The Commission may make such investigation and hold such hearings in the matter as it deems necessary or appropriate, and may attach reasonable terms and conditions to the granting of such approval.
(5) If, within 60 days after the filing of such application, the Commission has not acted concerning the application, it shall be deemed to have been approved. The Commission may, within such 60-day period, set the matter for hearing, in which event the Commission shall render a decision concerning said application within 7 months from the date such application was filed or the application shall be deemed in fact and law to be approved, unless within said 7-month period the Commission for good cause shown shall enter an order extending the period for decision for a further reasonable time not to exceed 120 days.
(6) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to require formal application for approval of abandonment or discontinuance of service to any individual customer or customer class where the basis for such abandonment or discontinuance is nonpayment of bills or other violation of the utility’s rules, regulations and tariffs.
(7) The Commission may seek injunctive relief in the Court of Chancery to prevent any abandonment in violation of this subsection and in such proceeding shall not be required to post security for any temporary or preliminary injunction.
(e) As of the implementation dates specified in § 1003(b)(1) and (2) of this title (repealed), nothing contained in this section shall be construed to require application for approval of the abandonment or discontinuance of service by an electric supplier.
47 Del. Laws, c. 254, § ?8; 48 Del. Laws, c. 371, § ?13; 26 Del. C. 1953, § ?162; 53 Del. Laws, c. 364, §§ ?1-4; 54 Del. Laws, c. 38, § ?1; 57 Del. Laws, c. 665, §§ ?2, 3; 59 Del. Laws, c. 397, § ?1; 64 Del. Laws, c. 150, § ?1; 66 Del. Laws, c. 50, § ?1; 72 Del. Laws, c. 10, §§ ?7-9; 79 Del. Laws, c. 53, § ?4; 81 Del. Laws, c. 205, § 2; 82 Del. Laws, c. 11, § 2;