Dominion Energy wants 12.7% rate hike for SC residents. What it means for power bills

Dominion Energy wants to raise electricity rates 11.47% for all South Carolina customers in July, according to the utility’s application with state regulators. If approved, the utility’s more than 820,000 residential customers will pay about $20 more a month under the 12.7% requested rate increase.

The $322 million increase will help Dominion Energy offset costs of repairs from Hurricane Helene, new generation and transmission, and fixes to meet federal regulatory requirements, said company President Keller Kissam in an interview with The State on Friday.

Dominion Energy built new generation and transmission to meet growing population and industry demand, Kissam said. Old infrastructure will also be retired or need replacements or updates, he said.

“Customers cannot be in the dark,” Kissam said. “A hurricane can come in and put people in the dark, but we can’t have it because we have not planned, invested and constructed the necessary resources to meet the demand placed upon the system each day: residential, commercial and industrial.”

The state regulated utility wants to raise residential customer rates 12.67%. If approved, commercial rates would go up 5.91% and industrial rates over 14.86%, said John Raftery, the general manager of regulatory affairs at Dominion Energy.

If regulators approve Dominion’s request, the average residential bill would go up almost $20 in July, Rafferty said.

The rate hike request comes as customers already face rising power bills in South Carolina. For Dominion customers, the average residential bill for 1000 kilowatts a month was $157 in July 2025. In May 2024, it was $132, according to a report from the state Office of Regulatory staff.

The request will further pinch consumers struggling with energy costs, said Shayne Kinloch, the director of the South Carolina Energy Justice Coalition

“Another rate hike makes tough situations worse,” Kinloch said. “Again, folks who are already paying more than that acceptable, affordable threshold on energy costs, every increase is just going to fuel that hardship even more, unfortunately.”

If approved, the new rate would go into effect less than two years after Dominion raised residential rates by 11.4% in 2024.

“Those are two double-digit increases pretty close together, and it’s obviously a bad time for consumers with inflation and tariffs and all of that,” said Jalen Brooks-Knepfle, an energy project manager at Conservation Voters of South Carolina.

Dominion provides energy to more than 820,000 customers in the Midlands and Lowcountry, including Columbia, Aiken and Charleston.

The new rates encompass $1.4 billion in new investments, including three natural gas peaker plants and transmission upgrades, Kissam said. Dominion is also dealing with rising property taxes and inflation, he said.

“It’s like milk, eggs and bread, certainly, meat, things of that extent, have increased in cost,” Kissam said. “We face those same increases in cost with the components that we have to invest in.”

The rate hike does not include money for a proposed 2,200, $5 billion natural gas plant in Colleton County. Dominion will pay for half of the project, and state-owned utility Santee Cooper will pay for the other half. The natural gas plant is necessary to meet growing demand in the state, according to a joint application from Dominion and Santee Cooper. Growth, and the utility’s responsibility meet its needs, will likely not slow down, Kissam said.

The rate increase request was electronically filed Jan. 2. The utility requested to host four public hearings on the rate increases in Columbia, Aiken, Bluffton and North Charleston in March. Residents can also write a letter of protest to the Public Service Commission about the rate case. Kinloch encouraged customers to attend public hearings, write letters to the Public Service Commission and speak with their elected officials.

The evidentiary hearing is slated to take place in May, Raftery said. If approved by the Public Service Commission, new rates will go into effect in July.

This story was originally published January 5, 2026 at 2:15 PM.