Tenn. Code Ann. § 65-4-208: Interstate transmission of electric power

(a) Notwithstanding any other law, no person, firm or corporation not engaged on March 22, 1955, in the business of generating, transmitting, distributing, or furnishing electric power shall extend or construct transmission or distribution lines or other works into or within the state, directly or indirectly enter the state, for the purpose of delivering within the state electric power generated at a point or points outside the state, unless such person, firm or corporation shall have first submitted its plans for such extension, construction or entry to the commission and shall have obtained from the commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity covering the same. The commission shall deny such certificate if, after a hearing, the commission cannot affirmatively establish that the granting of such certificate would serve the public interest.

(b) This section shall not apply to the federal government or any federal agency, to the state of Tennessee or any agency or political subdivision of the state, or to any cooperative association organized under the former Electric Cooperative Act or the former Electric Membership Corporation Act, but shall be fully applicable to any private corporation organized under the laws of this or any other state and to any public corporation of any other state, irrespective of the nature, identity or governmental or other public status of the purchaser, consumer, or other party to whom electric power is to be delivered within the state.

(c) The provisions of this section shall be cumulative and the requirements contained in this section shall be in addition to, and not in substitution for, the requirements contained in any other law.