If SC -Supply Companies cannot deliver enough energy, big companies will have OK to look elsewhere

With State Utilities, which says they have to build more power plants, some of South Carolina’s largest energy pads offer another option, as they say, could reduce it urgent to establish new power sources.

During a Senate consultation on Wednesday in Columbia, representatives of major power users said they would like the flexibility to buy energy from other utilities instead of being limited to Dominion Energy, Santee Cooper and Duke Energy.

“This is a perfect time to try this,” SC Energy User Committee Attorney Scott Elliott said and noted that “at least in case of Dominion and Santee Cooper, they don’t have a whole lot of extra generational capacity. ‘

Elliott said that if the capacity of giving power is thin so that the largest users of electricity can find other sources would remove pressure from dominion, Santee Cooper and possibly Duke to build more power plants.

“Let the bigger guys buy it somewhere else,” he told members of a special selection of Senates energy. Larger energy consumers could potentially get more favorable rates from companies other than those in South Carolina, he said.

As it says, utilities in South Carolina Monopol have operated in specific service theories, which means anyone in these areas must buy power from these tools. Dominion Energy primarily serves the Columbia and Aiken areas as well as Beaufort County, while Santee Cooper primarily delivers electricity to electric cooperatives and serves directly home in the Myrtle Beach area. Duke Energy provides power to both Carolinas, including Upstate and Eastern Parts of South Carolina.

At least 19 states, including Georgia, now allow some freedom for energy consumers to choose their power sources from external service territories. Georgia’s allowance is limited to new industrial customers moving into the state, according to testimony on Wednesday.

Auxiliary representatives were cool for the idea and said the case is more complicated than many people might be aware of.

But John Dezee, CEO Vice President and General Attorney for Century aluminumsaid investor -owned utilities are motivated to build more power plants because it helps them make money.

“From their point of view, they always want to build more generation,” Dezee said. He questioned the immediate need to build plants if large energy -consumed companies could buy electricity from other sources.

Dezee said that giving industrial plants the opportunity to choose energy providers creating competition that he suggested would keep a tool rate lower.

“How to work this: Utilities have only two options. One is to build several generation or two is to allow large customers to go out and buy electricity from someone already built ” a generation system, Dezee said.

Century Aluminum drives a melting system in South Carolina that has A reported $ 700 million annual impact In the economy of the Berkeley-Charleston area. In addition to the century, SC Energy Users Committee represents several major industries, including Michelin, Milliken, Kimberly Clark, Alpek, Amick Farms and several paper companies.

The practice of acquiring power from other states has taken place before in South Carolina, but only in special cases, and this is generally not allowed under state law, Elliott said after the meeting. He said the legislation should pass on the general meeting to allow regular use of power from providers other than South Carolina Utilities.

Wednesday’s consultation follows more than a year of discussion in the legislature to amend state legislation to allow for more power plants in South Carolina. The state is growing rapidly and increasingly needs more ways to meet the demand, especially from new industries, including data centers that use extraordinary amounts of energy, many legislators say.

Dominion Energy, formerly SCE & G in South Carolina, has said that the need for more power is real. The state came dangerously close to having power cuts for Christmas two years ago under an inevitable cold snap, Dominion -Officers have said.

The state’s largest electricity companies are supporting legislation this year, which contains different ways they say will help meet the energy needs.

Among these are changes in state legislation that would limit some environmental and consumer regulation of new energy deficiencies and allow expanded nuclear capacity. The changes would also give state-owned Santee Cooper approval to work with Dominion Energy to build a large natural gas plant in the Canadys community in Colleton County between Columbia and the coast.

A comprehensive bill that contain many of these elements have been introduced to the house. It was discussed Wednesday by a subcommittee that met at the same time as Senate’s consultation.

Following the testimony of Elliott and Dezee, Santee Cooper and Duke Energy leaders said that allowing large industries to choose energy providers outside a tool’s territory actually damage the average tax payer.

Jimmy Staton, CEO of Santee Cooper, said there could be extra costs that would be carried by electricity companies and existing customers. Power companies, for example, would still have to deliver the energy through transmission lines, he said.

“To make adjustments to what work always in other states.

Elliott said that additional costs for South Carolina electricity companies could be recovered. For example, utilities could charge large industries for the right to use power lines, even if the utilities buy power outside the state.

Heather Shirley Smith, Duke Energy’s South Carolina -Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Politics, also urged legislators to move carefully in the opening of markets for major users. She said Duke has a legal demand to earn her territory in South Carolina, regardless of whether a customer is trying to acquire power elsewhere.

She and Elliott disagreed as to whether it is legal to allow large companies to acquire power outside their South Carolina Service Territories.

“The tool still has the obligation to serve,” she said. “I’ve never heard of a customer come to Duke Energy and ask to be completely unobstructed from the web.”

Despite concerns from electricity companies, Staton said he is willing to listen to plans that help large industrial customers as long as it does not cost the average taxpayer. Staton noted that Santee Cooper, as opposed to Duke and rule, is a State Agency that does not have to make profits from new power plants.

During Wednesday’s consultation, a data center representative said there is an interest in helping South Carolina meet future energy needs through nuclear power. But she demanded no obligations to help pay for new nuclear power or natural gas systems that some legislators hope.

Google’s Katie Ottenweller said her company’s use of power in South Carolina actually keeps rates lower for other customers, allowing energy suppliers to spread costs across a larger customer base. She also noted that the company has invested in 128 megawatt solar energy in South Carolina.

“We praise members of this committee for exploring opportunities for new nuclear power in South Carolina and are eager to explore ways that Google can support this effort,” said Ottenweller, a leader of Southeast Energy Market with Google. “And although we strongly believe in nuclear, Google does not build itself or operate or operate nuclear plants.

Companies are increasingly looking at South Carolina to establish data centers when the state recruits industry.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said in August that it would establish the company’s First South Carolina operation with a new data center in the Aiken area. The investment would be about $ 800 million and give about 100 jobs, head of government Henry McMaster’s Office has said.

Two major energy building projects are discussed for South Carolina: One is the proposed Santee Cooper dominion natural gas plant in Colleton County on site for an old coal system. The other is the reboot of VC Summer Nuclear Plant Expansion, a project in Fairfield County It was never done Due to cost overruns and delays.

The nuclear construction that closed down in 2017 wound up cost limit payers billions of dollars for a project they are still being charged with. The project started after the legislation adopted tool -friendly legislation that enabled utilities to charge customers for the construction costs before the project was completed, rather than waiting and charging them after the end.

Senator Tom Davis, R-Beaufort and Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said they support studying if the VC Summer Project could be completed. Two reactors under construction were 20 percent and 40 percent respectively, when the project was shut down in July 2017, supply officials have said. The reactors were built to supplement the existing summer reactor.

Santee Cooper, state -owned tool, Seeking suggestions from companies that are interested in completing the construction project. Davis said on the Senate floor on Wednesday that the state must move rapidly. Gov. Henry

McMaster said in his state in the state’s speech on Wednesday that he supports the restart of the summer project and the use of nuclear power to give South Carolina Energi.

“It definitely makes sense,” Massey said. “We have to find out what we’ve got and what it would take to end it.”