Santee Cooper is seeking proposals to acquire and complete the expansion of the VC Summer Nuclear Station

RFP Process Launched; bid no later than 5 May.

Posted January 22, 2025 |

[email protected]
843.761.7093

” class=”btnSmall btn-secondaryGreen”>Media contact

In response to national interest in new nuclear power to help meet growing electricity needs, Santee Cooper today launched a process seeking proposals to acquire and complete or propose alternatives to two partially constructed generating units at the VC Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, SC

Santee Cooper has engaged Centerview Partners LLC to conduct a request for proposal (RFP) seeking parties interested in acquiring the project and related assets and potentially completing one or both units or pursuing alternative uses for the assets. Answers are sent to Centerview on May 5, 2025.

“We’re seeing renewed interest in nuclear energy, driven by advanced manufacturing investments, AI-driven data center demand and the technology industry’s carbon-free goals,” said President and CEO Jimmy Staton. “Given the long timelines required to bring new nuclear units online, Santee Cooper has a unique opportunity to explore the possibilities of Summer Units 2 and 3 and their related assets that could allow someone to generate reliable, carbon-free electricity on a meaningfully shortened timeline.”

Staton continued, “We appreciate the state leaders’ interest in Santee Cooper moving forward with this RFP. Although Santee Cooper has no plans to own or operate these units, this process may help identify another unit with a viable alternative , that would create benefits for our customers, support economic development and provide value to the state of South Carolina.”

Factors contributing to the utility’s decision to launch the RFP process include:

• A need for new manufacturing capacity, driven by rapid growth in data centers, the continued onshore of advanced manufacturing and the retirement of fossil units.
• Significant interest nationally in rebuilding previously closed or canceled nuclear projects to shorten project timelines. Unit 2 was significantly advanced when the project was cancelled.
• Federal support for nuclear construction, including the availability of tax credits and loan guarantees.

Selected VC Summer project highlights include:

• Its unique position as the only site in the United States that could deliver 2,200 MW of nuclear capacity on an accelerated timeline.
• Its use of AP1000 technology is also used by Southern Company for Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, which entered service in 2023 and 2024.
• Its location within the nuclear safety envelope of the larger VC Summer station site, which was always intended to accommodate multiple units.
• Its access to ample land, water and transmission infrastructure upgrades built to accommodate the output of the units.

After years of extensive and costly delays and then the bankruptcy of its contractor, Santee Cooper voted to halt construction of Units 2 and 3 in July 2017 and, along with majority owner SCE&G (now Dominion Energy South Carolina), abandoned the project. SCE&G transferred its interest in the assets to Santee Cooper in 2018.