The corporation gets broad powers to run its utilities, make contracts, issue bonds, set rates, hire staff, and use certain property rights, and it is entitled to municipal-corporation exemptions.
(a) The corporation shall be entitled to all the exemptions provided by the general laws of Alabama and of the United States for municipal corporations. To carry out its purposes, the corporation shall have the following specific powers, but no enumeration of powers granted in this chapter shall be construed to impair or limit any general grant of power contained in this chapter nor to limit any such grant to a power or powers of the same class or classes as those enumerated: (1) To have succession by its corporate name perpetually unless dissolved and unless a shorter period of time shall be specified in the certificate; (2) To sue and be sued and to prosecute and defend; (3) To have and to use a corporate seal and to alter the same at will; (4) To acquire by purchase or lease and to operate, maintain, extend, and improve any utility within the power district, including any real and personal properties and any contract and franchise rights in connection therewith, provided that it shall not do any such acts in any territory served by an existing utility without the consent of such existing utility; (5) To acquire by purchase the entire stock of any private corporation owning and operating a utility within the power district, but only as a step in the acquisition of title to such utility, and any such private corporation shall be dissolved immediately upon acquisition of such stock by the corporation, and all properties and assets of such utility shall thereupon be conveyed to the corporation; (6) To generate, purchase, sell, and deliver, at wholesale or retail, to any person, firm, or corporation, whether public or private, and to any government or governmental agency, within the power district, electric light and power service and any other service, commodity, or facility which may be produced or furnished in connection therewith; (7) To exercise the power of eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring additional property so as to extend within the limits of the power district the lines of any utility owned by it, but not for the purpose of acquiring an existing utility or any part of an existing utility; (8) To use and occupy any public highway, street, way, or place located within the power district which may be reasonably necessary to be used or occupied for the maintenance and operation of any utility or part thereof owned by the corporation, all without any franchise, consent, or permit except such as may be required by the Constitution of Alabama; (9) To make and enter into contracts without restriction except as may be limited in this chapter or by the Constitution and laws of Alabama; (10) To incur obligations and, as evidence of any such obligations, to issue its bonds; (11) To refund any bonds issued by it; (12) As security for the payment of the principal of and interest on any bonds issued by it, to pledge all or any part of its revenue and to execute mortgages and deeds of trust covering all or any part of its properties and its contract and franchise rights, including any and all after-acquired properties and rights, with such covenants and conditions contained therein as the board may deem advisable; (13) To sell, lease, or exchange any part of its properties and the rights applicable thereto which shall not be essential to the continued operation of any utility operated by it; provided, that the consent thereto shall have been granted by the trustee under any mortgage or deed of trust covering the properties so sold, leased, or exchanged if such mortgage or deed of trust requires such consent; (14) To sell, lease or exchange its properties and rights in part, provided that the consent thereto shall have been granted by the trustee under any mortgage or deed of trust covering the properties so sold, leased or exchanged if such mortgage or deed of trust requires such consent; (15) To sell, lease, or exchange any of its properties and rights in part, provided that the consent thereto shall have been granted by the trustee under any mortgage or deed of trust covering the properties so sold, leased, or exchanged if such mortgage or deed of trust requires such consent, and consent thereto shall also have been granted by the governing body of each municipality within the limits of which or within the police jurisdiction of which any of the properties proposed to be sold, leased, or exchanged shall be located; (16) To fix and collect rates and charges for any services rendered by or from any utility owned or operated by it as provided in this chapter; (17) To employ officers, employees, and attorneys and to fix their compensation and duties, who shall hold office for such terms and on such conditions as the board may prescribe, but no officer or employee of the corporation shall be a director of the corporation or an elective officer of any municipality located within the power district; and (18) To exercise all additional powers necessary or convenient to perform its functions and carry out the purposes of the corporation which are capable of being delegated by the Legislature. (b) The corporation shall not be subject, either in its organization or in the exercise of any of its powers, to any jurisdiction by the Alabama Public Service Commission.