Santee Cooper seeks 3 years of rate increase starting in 2016

Public utility Santee Cooper, the state’s largest power generator, is seeking a rate increase averaging 2.7 percent a year for the next three years from its entire customer base beginning in 2016, the company announced Monday.

The proposed increase, if approved by state regulators, would mean a 5.3 percent higher bill in 2016 for all Santee Cooper customers – residential, commercial, industrial and others – a 2.1 percent higher bill in 2017, and 1 percent higher in 2018.

For a typical residential customer, one who uses 1,000-kilowatt hours of electricity per month and pays $112.70 in charges, their utility bills would rise $4.50 a month beginning in April 2016, $2.00 more a month beginning in April 2017 and $1.20 a month more beginning in April 2018, the company said, totaling $7.70.

The two main factors driving the rate hike are the expenses associated with the continued construction of two new nuclear units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County and a stagnating rise in the growth rate of new power customers after the Great Recession, the utility said.

Santee Cooper serves 172,000 residential and commercial customers in Horry, Georgetown and Berkeley counties and 28 industrial customers, the company said. It asked the Santee Cooper Board of Directors to approve the increases.

Without the requested rate hikes, Santee Cooper said it would experience a $48 million shortfall by 2018, of which $45 million would be attributable to debt service connected to the new reactor construction.

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 5:43 PM.