2013 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 58 - Public Utilities, Services and Carriers
CHAPTER 27 - ELECTRIC UTILITIES AND ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES
SECTION 58-27-650. Reassignment of service areas or portions thereof.

(A) The Public Service Commission, upon agreement of the affected electric suppliers, is authorized to reassign to one electric supplier any area or portion of the area assigned to another and, notwithstanding the lack of an agreement, the commission upon petition by any electric supplier or county or consolidated political subdivision within this State, after notice to all affected electric suppliers and after hearing, if a hearing is requested by any affected electric supplier, the Office of Regulatory Staff, or any other interested party, is authorized to reassign to one electric supplier any area or portion of the area assigned to another, except premises being served by the other electric supplier or to which any of its facilities for service are attached and except the portions of the area as are within three hundred feet of the other electric supplier's lines, upon a finding that the reassignment is required by public convenience and necessity. In determining whether public convenience and necessity require the reassignment, the commission shall consider among other things the adequacy and dependability of the service of the affected electric suppliers, but may not consider rate differentials between the electric suppliers.

(B) The Public Service Commission has the authority and jurisdiction, if a hearing is requested by any affected electric supplier, the Office of Regulatory Staff, or municipality, to order any electric supplier to cease and desist from furnishing electric service inside an assigned area which has been annexed into a municipality upon a finding that service to existing consumers by the electric supplier which is then furnishing service, or which has the right to furnish service to the premises, is or will be inadequate or undependable, and cannot or will not be made adequate or dependable within a reasonable time, or that the rates, conditions of service, or service regulations, applied to the consumers, are unreasonably discriminatory. In determining the adequacy and dependability of service or whether rates, conditions of service, or service regulations are unreasonably discriminatory, the commission may not consider rate differentials between the affected electric suppliers or municipality or differences in the provisions of utility service other than electrical services. Upon a finding of inadequate, undependable, or unreasonably discriminatory service, the commission shall order necessary improvements or corrections or the sale of the facilities in accordance with Section 58-27-1360.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 24-16; 1969 (56) 740; 1972 (57) 2757; 1984 Act No. 431, Section 2, eff June 6, 1984; 2006 Act No. 318, Section 170, eff May 24, 2006.