Information about Electric Franchises

The Iowa Utilities Board, Safety and Engineering Section, is responsible for reviewing and processing all petitions for electric transmission line franchises under Iowa Code chapter 478, Electric Transmission Lines and Board rules at 199 Iowa Administrative Code chapter 11, Electric Lines and chapter 25, Iowa Electrical Safety Code. A franchise is the authorization of the Board for the construction, erection, maintenance, and operation of an electric transmission line. The granting of a franchise requires a finding by the Board that the project is necessary to serve a public use, represents a reasonable relationship to an overall plan of transmitting electricity in the public interest, and meets all other legal requirements.

In July 2019 the Board updated the Exhibit C form for Overhead Transmission Line and accompanying instructions. The revised documents are located under the "Electric Franchise Forms" section as "Exhibit C - Instructions" and "Exhibit C - Overhead Transmission Line."  

Electric Franchise Forms (Documents are MS Word unless otherwise noted)

Training Resources

One Call Underground Locate Service, Damage Prevention, One Call Complaints and Violation Enforcement by the Attorney General

To avoid a potential accident caused by excavation, have the location of all utility lines marked before excavating by hand or with equipment. To comply with Iowa law, in accordance with Iowa Code chapter 480, Underground Facilities Information, a person must contact Iowa One Call at 811 or 800.292.8989 a minimum of two days (excluding Saturday, Sunday and state holidays) before excavation commences. After Iowa One Call is contacted, the following will happen:

  • Operators with underground facilities in the area where the excavation is planned are notified. This includes natural gas and power utilities, communications companies, and cities and towns.
  • Within 48 hours after being contacted, utilities either mark their underground facilities with color-coded paint marks or flags, or tell the excavator they have no lines in the area.

If a contractor is performing the excavation work, a person should make sure that the contractor calls Iowa One Call two days prior to the commencement of excavating.

Visit the Iowa One Call website for more information about damage prevention and Iowa One Call.

The Office of the Attorney General enforces the One Call Law. See more information about One Call Complaints and enforcement through the Attorney General's Office.

Other Information

Searching for Electric Franchise Filings

All public filings and Board orders regarding specific electric franchise filings (E-Dockets) are available on the Board's electronic filing system (EFS). To search for documents related to franchise petitions, click the EFS link, select Search from the top navigation menu, and scroll down to Document Search. This will open a document search screen. Enter the docket number (E-XXXXX) relating to the electric franchise for which you would like more information and click the Search button. This will provide a list of all documents filed online with the Board in that proceeding.

If you do not know the specific docket number, you must do a docket search to determine the docket number. To start, click the EFS link, select Search from the top navigation menu and scroll down to Docket Search. This will open a docket search screen. Select E - Electric Franchise or Extension from the Docket Type drop-down box and then select the company name from the Participants drop down box. Be sure to click the Add button to add the company to the search parameters. After entering the search terms, click the Search button to display a list of all documents filed in all E-dockets for that company. To narrow the search to a particular county, include the county name in the Docket Description field, surrounded by the percent sign (%) as a wildcard character.

Electric Franchise Information Contact:
Magid Yousif
Manager, Safety & Engineering Section, Iowa Utilities Board
515.725.7315
magid.yousif@iub.iowa.gov

Media Inquiries Contact:
Don Tormey
Director of Communications, Iowa Utilities Board
515.725.7347
don.tormey@iub.iowa.gov

Printed from the website on May 29, 2020 at 8:11am.