George from Charleston here. PSC just approved Santee Cooper's 8% rate increase effective May 1st. This is on top of the 6% increase from last year, so we're looking at 14.5% cumulative over two years. The V.C. Summer nuclear project costs are finally hitting ratepayers hard. Residential customers will see about $12-15 monthly increases, commercial varies by rate schedule.
Santee Cooper Rate Increase - 8% Approved
Eleanor from Savannah. We're dealing with similar nuclear cost recovery across the border with Georgia Power and Vogtle Units 3&4. The difference is Georgia Power spread their increases over 5 years starting in 2017. George, is Santee Cooper facing any customer pushback on concentrating these increases in just two years?
Massive pushback Eleanor. Several large industrial customers are threatening to relocate and residential customers are furious. The timing couldn't be worse with COVID-19 impacts. Santee Cooper claims they had to accelerate cost recovery due to bond obligations, but many think it's politically motivated to make a sale to Dominion Energy more attractive.
Linda from Tucson here. APS went through similar nuclear cost recovery drama with Palo Verde Units back in the 1990s. George, are there any industrial customers considering self-generation to avoid these increases? At 14.5% cumulative, distributed solar+storage might start looking attractive for larger facilities.
Linda, absolutely. I've got three manufacturing clients in the 2-5 MW range that are getting serious about solar. Santee Cooper's net metering policy isn't great but at current rate levels, even poor net metering terms make projects pencil out. The 8% increase pushes avoided costs to about $0.095/kWh for Schedule LP customers.
Randy from Memphis. TVA customers are watching South Carolina closely since we have similar exposure to nuclear cost overruns. George, do you think Santee Cooper will need additional increases in 2021-2022 or does this 8% cover their immediate financial needs? The utility sector's nuclear legacy costs are going to be a major issue for the next decade.