SC nuke fiasco in the news again

More news from the South Carolina nuclear fiasco, the gift that keeps on giving for energy reporters. The state Public Service Commission has reversed itself and concluded that the former SCANA Corp., lead utility on the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project (and now a division of Dominion), lied about progress at the nuke in order to get regulatory rate increases.

Summer construction

The state regulators were notoriously accommodating to SCANA and its SCE&G operating subsidiary throughout the Summer fiasco, with assurances from the utility that all was going smoothly. The State reported that in approving the Dominion takeover last month, the PSC avoided charges raised in a November hearing, both by the commission’s staff and Charlotte Walker, former SCANA vice president of nuclear finance, that the company was doctoring the books on the project. In approving the Dominion deal, the regulators refused to rule that the utility had been “imprudent” in its project.

The regulators’ decision this week that the company intentionally mislead them won’t change anything. But the newspaper commented that “the ruling signals the PSC’s tougher attitude toward utilities. In the past, the state agency has been criticized as too friendly to utilities, especially after it allowed SCE&G to raise its electric rates nine times to finance the doomed V.C. Summer Nuclear Station project.”

In another Summer-related development, at least one large investor-owned utility, a likely several, made an unspecified bid for Santee Cooper, the large state-owned public power system that was a 49% partner in the nuclear project. South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has been pushing for a sale of Santee Cooper since the July 2017 crash of the construction project.

Duke Energy confirmed this week that it has put in a bid for Santee Cooper. North Carolina-based Duke already operates in South Carolina through Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress. Dominion has expressly said it is not interested bidding for Santee Cooper.

Santee Cooper is the nation’s fourth largest public power utility in terms of MWh sales, according to the American Public Power Association, behind only the New York Power Authority (a model South Carolina used in creating Santee Cooper), Salt River Project, and CPS Energy. It serves some 175,000 customers (through the state’s rural electric cooperatives) and has 5742 MW of generating capacity: 229 MW of oil, 3650 coal, 1100 gas, 150 hydro, 343 nuclear (its share of the two operating Summer units).

Other potential offers for the utility, and its $8 billion in debt, which would lose tax-exempt status if purchased by an investor-owned utility, include Pacolet Milliken, a South Carolina financial company and owner of Lockhart Power operating in five Upstate counties, the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina with two different proposals, and possibly Florida’s NextEra Energy.

A sale of the public power system is going to prove difficult. The feisty statewide political blog FITSNews (motto: “Unfair, Imbalanced”) has been reporting for months that there aren’t enough votes in the state Senate to approve a sale, which requires a General Assembly green light. FITSNews reported, “Even if there were a willing buyer, state lawmakers are unwilling to surrender their stranglehold over the utility – which they routinely raid to buttress taxpayer-funded ‘economic development’ deals.”

Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler told reporters Jan. 3, “I don’t believe the votes are there to sell Santee Cooper.” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey agreed: “It’s a big political lift. You’re going to have some folks that are going to defend Santee Cooper no matter what they do. You’re going to have other people who are going to want to sell Santee Cooper no matter what.”

— Kennedy Maize