South Carolina Nuclear Reactors: SCE&G Customers Should Get Money Back, Agency Says

JENKINSVILLE, SC — A state agency in South Carolina wants regulators to outline plans to give customers most of the money South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. expects in compensation for its failed nuclear reactor project. The Office of Regulatory Staff filed a request Tuesday with the Public Service Commission asking the panel to figure out how best to pay ratepayers, The State newspaper reported.

The money could be repaid by reducing monthly bills or through direct rebates.

SCE&G's parent company, SCANA, expects nearly $1 billion from Toshiba, parent company of Westinghouse, whose bankruptcy this year resulted in abandonment of work on two Fairfield County reactors.

SCE&G customers have paid nearly $2 billion for the reactors.

SCANA spokesman Eric Boomhower has said money from Toshiba would be used to offset the project's costs.(For more information on the scuttled project and other Columbia-area stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

SCANA was served with a subpoena and will "fully cooperate" with federal regulators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who are looking into the scuttled nuclear reactor construction project in Jenkinsville.

Photo credit: Jeffrey Collins/Associated Press