State Gives OK for Rate Increase

No one was surprised.
Not S.C. regulators, S.C. Electric & Gas officials or its 700,000 customers.
The Public Service Commission approved last week SCE&G’s 9th rate increase in nine years of almost $70 million to cover the financing of its cost overruns and long delays at its nuclear plant construction site.
Under state law, the Public Service Commission was hamstrung in turning down the increase. But they did lower it from a 3.1% increase to 2.6% for homes.
Businesses will pay up to 3% depending on their size.
SCE&G wanted to raise rates an average of $4.44 a month for average home use of 1,000 kilowatt hours.
The PSC shaved that to $4 or $149 per customer.
Commissioner Elliott Elam Jr., a Columbia attorney representing Lexington County, voted unanimously with other commissioners and without debate to give SCE&G almost $70 million.
Critics say state lawmakers may not have realized they were handing the power company a blank check when they passed the now controversial Base Load Review Act.
The law allows utility companies to finance nuclear construction with their customers’ money.
SCE&G promised to save customers millions of dollars in rates in gaining regulators’ approval to add two nuclear plants to its existing plant in Jenkinsville, 35 miles from the utility giant’s Cayce headquarters.
Both plants were to cost $9.8 billion but the PSC approved up to $11 billion for the project.
The first plant was to be in operation to save customers’ money this year. Now it will be three years late and the second plant could be more than four years late.