Staff Report
Published Oct. 1, 2009

An annual rate increase has been approved for S.C. Electric & Gas Co.’s share in construction of two new nuclear reactors near Jenkinsville.

The S.C. Public Service Commission approved a 1.1% annual increase Wednesday in retail electric rates. In its filing with the agency for approval of its reactor plans, SCE&G estimated that electric rates would rise 37% to absorb the costs of the project. Paying for the project during construction, instead of charging customers only after a reactor is online, will save customers $1 billion in financing costs, the utility has said.

The two reactors will supply power for SCE&G and Santee Cooper. SCE&G said that, thus far, all scheduling goals are being met. The first new reactor at the V.C. Summer plant could be online by 2016, if federal approval follows state action. The second could start as early as 2019.

The new reactors still need approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission before operations can begin. If the schedule is kept, the new reactor will be among the first to be launched in the United States in decades.