NextEra withdraws bid to buy SC’s Santee Cooper. What happens now?
The preferred bidder for the state-owned Santee Cooper has formally withdrawn its offer to buy the debt-laden utility.
In a letter obtained by The State newspaper late Tuesday, Florida-based NextEra Energy terminated its transaction agreement with South Carolina and asked the state to return the $25 million deposit it made when offering to buy Santee Cooper.
The deposit was required after the Department of Administration selected NextEra as the preferred buyer.
Now that the state Senate has pushed forward a Santee Cooper reform plan that does not include an option to consider purchase offers, a sale of the utility seems unlikely. However, House members earlier this year passed a reform package that proposes a committee of lawmakers to consider offers. And Gov. Henry McMaster wants any Santee Cooper reform package to include options to sell.
The House is expected to debate the Senate’s reform proposal next week and will have to reconcile the major difference in the proposed reform packages.
Before the Senate passed its reform plan, which looked at board members and oversight of Santee Cooper’s ratemaking and energy generation planning, NextEra sent a letter to Senate President Harvey Peeler that it was willing to come back to the negotiating table.
After Santee Cooper partnered in an abandoned V.C. Summer Nuclear Station project, leaving billions of dollars in debt, the lawmakers sought bids from companies interested in buying the utility or managing the utility and a reform proposal from the utility itself.
Last year, lawmakers rejected a purchase offer from NextEra as well as an offer from Dominion Energy to manage Santee Cooper.
Whether NextEra has lost all interest in buying Santee Cooper remains to be seen. The utility did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
The Post and Courier was first to report the news Wednesday.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 10:51 AM.
