Santee Cooper’s New Energy Plan is Bad News for South Carolina Customers

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Santee Cooper’s long-range energy plan admits that increased demand from large load customers, like data centers, is creating an upward pressure on costs, according to the utility’s filing with state regulators yesterday. Rather than meeting growing demand with affordable solar and wind, Santee Cooper wants to double down on expensive new gas plants and delay coal plant retirements.

In 2023, Santee proposed building 1,500 megawatts (MW) of solar by 2030 and 3,000 MW by 2040. The utility’s new preferred plan delays solar investments until 2052, eliminating one of the few immediately deployable and affordable energy resources available to customers. According to independent industry analysts, renewable energy “remains the most cost-competitive form of new-build generation.”

In 2023, Santee proposed retiring its Winyah coal plant by 2030. The new plan pencils in a retirement date at the end of 2034 while leaving the door open to additional delays. A potential retirement is tied to the addition of a new costly gas plant and new electricity demand from large users, like data centers.

In a filing with North Carolina regulators in August, Duke Energy’s expert witness noted that, “the dynamics of the coal industry present real and significant challenges to the Companies’ operation of these units and to the balancing of reliability against the risks that the indefinite reliance on coal units pose,” and acknowledged that the Commission’s decision to extend coal operations necessarily carries “operational, economic, and reliability implications.”

The utility’s long-range energy plan comes out against the backdrop of unprecedented federal action to strip communities of public health safeguards from coal-burning power plants and the Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the Endangerment Finding.

The upward pressure on costs is partially due to a worldwide gas turbine supply crunch, according to Wood Mackenzie. South Carolinians are already concerned about the prospect of paying for the ballooning costs at the Canadys gas-burning power plant currently under construction.

Statement from Paul Black, Sierra Club’s Senior Campaign Organizer in South Carolina: 

“Santee’s pollution-heavy plan risks the health and wealth of families and businesses in the name of powering data centers. The choices utility leaders are making directly implicate the ability for families to put food on the table or enjoy our natural resources, and these leaders are taking us in the wrong direction. This is a bad deal for South Carolinians and we deserve better.”