Jul. 10--Electric transmission developer ITC Great Plains LLC said Monday it wants to be an Oklahoma utility so it can claim eminent domain when building transmission lines in the state.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, whose commissioners will approve or deny the request, said the company's filing was unprecedented because it asked for exemption from rate-making oversight. Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. said approval could raise rat s and hurt existing utilities. The Topeka, Kan.-based company said it plans to build and own electric transmission lines in the state, which carry power from generation sites to consumers. It is in discussions with OG&E, Public Service Company of Oklahoma and Western Farmers Electric Cooperative to partner on transmission projects, the company said.

The company wants to provide a "nondiscriminatory" electric pipeline that would be open to any generator or load, President Carl Huslig said. "We are solely focused on transmission," Huslig said. "That means we want to own it, construct it, maintain it and operate it for the life of the project. We are not a company that's here to build it in five years to sell it for financial gain." In June, the company acquired utility status in Kansas, and it has filed a similar request with the Texas Public Utility Commission. The company enters the region as governments and utilities examine ways to transport energy from windy rural areas with arrow transmission capacity to power-hungry population centers.

The demand for an upgrade has led to the creation of independent transmission companies. "It's just an evolutionary process, and now is the point where parties such as ITC Great Plains are finding a niche in the market," Southwest Power Pool Vice President Les Dillahunty said. The Southwest Power Pool is an association of seven states' offi ials and utilities coordinating transmission expansion. ITC Great Plains is a new member. The first major hurdle to building a transmission line is landowner opposition, Huslig said. The company would hope to resolve land disputes through negotiations before claiming eminent domain, he said.

"Everybody wants their electric rates to be lowered," he said. "The one way to do that is a robust transmission grid, but nobody wants to see these things in their back yard." The company requests partial utility status. It seeks exemptions from oversight that other Oklahoma electric utilities face because it does not serve users directly and it is not vertically integrated, according to its application. "It would appear at this point this is a new frontier," commission spokesman Matt Skinner said. "I can say for the record that no one here remembers anyone filing something like this before." OG&E spokesman Brian Alford said the utility is concerned because the potential lack of oversight could later increase costs for customers.

He said the company could also "cherry pick" projects of low risk and high return, leaving OG&E with financially iskier lines to build. "As a matter of policy, does the state want to grant eminent domain to a company based outside the state that may not be required to keep the best interests of Oklahomans in mind?" he said. ITC Great Plains spokeswoman Lisa Aragon said the declining investment by electric utilities into the transmission grid led to reliability problems such as the New York blackout of 2003. "Over the period of 30 years, between the '70s and early 2000, the rate of investment in the transmission grid has been cut effectively in half while transmission grid demand has doubled," she said.

"The investment in the grid was not even keeping pace ith depreciation of those assets and over time that was leading to reliability issues." An administrative law judge will next hold hearings on the company's request and allow interveners to dispute it, Skinner said. Following hearings, the judge will issue a recommendation to Corporation Commissioners, who will make a ruling.