MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – Santee Cooper is freezing rates for its residential, commercial, and lighting customers, from August 2020 through December 2024. Santee Cooper will manage any increased costs during this period with existing cash reserves and operational savings.
The four-year rate stabilization is part of the 2020 settlement with customers in a class-action lawsuit over costs associated with the failed V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project.
“Specifically, we are freezing base rates and holding fuel costs and other normally adjustable charges to levels provided in our Reform Plan. For residential and commercial customers, that means we project fuel prices will actually decrease 7% from 2020 through 2024, while base rates are projected to remain at 2017 levels,” said Mark Bonsall, Santee Cooper President and Chief Executive Officer.
”Santee Cooper is focused on increasing value for our customers,” Bonsall said. “We are expanding our leaner, greener power supply, paying down our debt, and building on our commitment to economic development in South Carolina.”
As outlined in Santee Cooper’s 2019 Business Forecast and refined in the proposed Reform Plan, Santee Cooper is transitioning to a more sustainable, flexible and less expensive generating portfolio that includes more solar and less coal. Savings associated with that transition will help maintain rate stability required by the settlement.