SCE&G fights to keep nuclear charge on customers’ bills as court showdown looms

Almost a year to the day after SCE&G announced the failure of its effort to build two new nuclear reactors in Fairfield County, the utility plans to go to court Monday to ask a federal judge to make its customers keep paying for the abandoned project.

Under a 2008 state law, SCE&G’s 700,000-plus customers now pay $27 a month, on average, to finance the half-finished reactors, originally expected to cost $9 billion. While the project has been dead for a year, SCE&G has kept the additional charge on its customers’ monthly bills — bringing in an extra $37 million a month.

However, in late June, the S.C. Legislature passed a new law requiring SCE&G to drop its monthly rates by 15 percent, starting in August. SCE&G has gone to federal court seeking an injunction — a court order — blocking that rate cut, ordered by the S.C. Public Service Commission.

Friday afternoon, SCE&G filed an amended complaint in federal court, saying the 2008 Base Load Review Act authorized the utility to hike its customers’ power bills as the nuclear power reactors were being built. SCE&G needs the money to pay for continuing costs, including billions in debt, stemming from the now-defunct project, the complaint said.

“The General Assembly has elected to change the proverbial rules of the game after it has ended,” SCE&G’s lawsuit says. “If the court does not grant immediate relief, SCE&G will suffer massive and irreparable harm, including millions of dollars in damages that cannot be recovered.”

While numerous lawsuits against SCE&G also are pending in state court, SCE&G’s federal complaint asks U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs to declare unconstitutional the General Assembly’s June law requiring SCE&G to cut its rates by 15 percent .

It also asks the judge to grant an injunction against the S.C. Public Service Commission from taking any actions that would cut customers’ bills. The PSC regulates public utilities and has authority over electric rates.

The complaints says that SCE&G’s current rates, which have nine nuclear-related rate hikes baked into them, generate $445 million a year in revenue.

State lawmakers said they passed the June law, requiring SCE&G to stop charging for the abandoned nuclear project, to give ratepayers relief. The rate cut only would be in effect until November, when the Public Service Commission will consider the issue.

In its complaint, SCE&G said the situation is urgent.

If the General Assembly’s new law is allowed to stand, SCE&G won’t have the money to pay for continuing costs associated with the failed project, the complaint says. Moreover, the act stands to scuttle Dominion Energy’s proposed acquisition of SCE&G parent SCANA, a buyout that includes in $1,000 refunds, on average, for residential electric customers.

Those ratepayers already have paid $2 billion for the abandoned reactors.

Judge Childs gave the other parties involved in the lawsuit — including the PSC — until 3 p.m. Saturday to respond to SCE&G’s Friday complaint.

As of late Friday, a hearing on the rate issue was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday at the federal courthouse in Columbia.

This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 5:22 PM.