Options discussed in potential Santee Cooper sale, McMaster says

Power companies have suggested options for buying some of South Carolina’s state-owned utility – now saddled with a multi-billion dollar failed nuclear construction project – but no offers have been made, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said.

“I wouldn't call them offers,” McMaster said Wednesday, speaking to reporters at an aerospace conference. “There have been many suggestions of options. The different power companies have different needs themselves.”

McMaster hopes to sell all or part of state-owned Santee Cooper, which partnered with Cayce-based SCANA to build two nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer power plant in Jenkinsville.

Customers who have paid to build two now-abandoned nuclear reactors should “get their money back,” if the reactors are never built, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said.

McMaster has not publicly said how selling Santee Cooper, which owns 45 percent stake in the nuclear project, would help customers who have shelled out $1.7 billion so far on the project.

However, McMaster said companies nationally “and abroad ... are interested in the situation in South Carolina.” Some have signed non-disclosure agreements in order to enter negotiations.

Santee Cooper has various assets, he said, including transmission lines, and coal, hydro-electric and some nuclear power facilities.

The companies, he added, are “interested in seeing what they could acquire to enhance their businesses.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Options discussed in potential Santee Cooper sale, McMaster says."