Dive Brief:
- South Carolina Electric & Gas has the authority to raise rates to pay for construction cost increases at the utility's V.C. Summer nuclear plant, the state's Supreme Court determined last week.
- Expansion of the plant began with an estimated cost of almost $10 billion, and critics of the court's decision say there is now no limit on costs which will be passed on to ratepayers.
- Cost estimates continue to rise, and last month contractors informed the utility that in 2007 dollars the expansion would cost an additional $1.2 billion.
Dive Insight:
The court's decision stems from an appeal arguing state legislators were wrong two years ago when they determined ratepayers were responsible for a a $283 million rate increase under the Base Load Review Act, rather than SCANA, the utility's parent company.
Energy Central quotes Susan Corbett, S.C. Chapter Sierra Club chairwoman, saying: "This is the Legislature's fault. I put it squarely in their lap."
The legislature "bowed to the utilities, allowed this thing to be passed, and now we're all suffering from it," Corbett said of the Base Load Review Act. The utility has been granted eight rate increases related to the nuclear expansion since 2009, Energy Central reported.
According to SCE&G, it has not signed off on any cost increases. The utility is constructing a pair of 1,117-megawatt Westinghouse reactors.
