“These are not additional costs related to the project, nor is this a request to raise customer rates,” said SCE&G President Kevin Marsh.
– Edited By Tom Lamar –
SCANA subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) today filed a petition with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSC) seeking approval to update the capital cost schedule for the construction of the company’s new nuclear units.
SCE&G and state-owned utility Santee Cooper are building two 1,117 megawatt nuclear units at the site of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C. The first unit is expected to be completed in 2016, the second in 2019, pending approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. SCE&G’s share of the project, as originally approved by the PSC, was $4.5 billion in 2007 dollars. Of this amount, approximately $438 million, or slightly less than 10 percent, represented contingency costs associated with the project. However, earlier this year the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that contingency costs were not permitted to be part of the approved capital cost schedule. As a result, SCE&G is required to specifically identify and itemize such costs before they can be included in the approved project budget. Today’s filing identifies currently known capital costs of $173.9 million that will be incurred during construction of the new nuclear units – costs that previously were classified as contingency costs.
“These are not additional costs related to the project, nor is this a request to raise customer rates,” said SCE&G President Kevin Marsh. “We’re simply specifying how we intend to use some of the dollars that originally were included in the contingency fund. Our project is still on schedule and within the cost projections initially approved by the PSC.”
PROFILE
SCANA Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Cayce, SC, is an energy-based holding company principally engaged, through subsidiaries, in electric and natural gas utility operations and other energy-related businesses. The Company serves approximately 660,000 electric customers in South Carolina and more than 1.2 million natural gas customers in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Information about SCANA and its businesses is available on the Company’s website at www.scana.com.