A Mississippi electric cooperative has begun negotiations to buy a 2-7 percent stake in two reactors under construction at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant.
In a release, Santee Cooper said it has signed a letter of intent with the South Mississippi Electric Power Association to begin negotiation on a power purchase agreement and potential transfer of a minority stake in the new units. Santee Cooper, which began studying a change in the proportion of its ownership of the reactors in 2010, currently owns 45 percent of the project with Scana subsidiary South Carolina Electric and Gas holding the majority stake.
South Mississippi Electric generates and transmits wholesale power for 11 distribution cooperatives servicing about 410,000 homes and businesses in the state.
The Shaw Group is building two new Westinghouse AP 1000 reactors at the Summer plant near Jenkinsville, S.C. The project’s cost was estimated at $9.8 billion in 2008 and the reactors are expected to be complete in 2017 and 2018.