Santee Cooper approves settlement over abandoned Pee Dee power plant project
The Santee Cooper Board on Monday approved a settlement for litigation over a power plant project in the Pee Dee region which never started.
Santee Cooper decided not to start the planned $2.2 billion coal-fired power plant in Florence County in 2009 after energy demands did not come to fruition amid the Great Recession.
Santee Cooper agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle the class action suit in Horry County. However, $9.7 million of that amount will come from insurance provider AIG.
The additional $2.8 million from Santee Cooper will not come from future rates, said Shawan Gillians, the legal services director for Santee Cooper.
How many customers will be in the class has yet to be determined. A judge will need to approve the settlement.
How much the utility spent on equipment for the construction project was not immediately available.
Last fall, however, Santee Cooper auctioned off equipment from the Pee Dee plant, which brought in $4 million, said Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore.
Santee Cooper abandoned the project in 2009 after it faced opposition by then-Gov. Mark Sanford, environmentalists, state electric cooperatives and many residents of the area. The utility said at the time it needed the energy, even though energy demand would soon begin to flatten out.
The settlement comes after Santee Cooper agreed to a $520 million settlement in a lawsuit over the 2017 abandonment of a V.C. Summer nuclear plant expansion in Fairfield County. Santee Cooper paid $200 million in that settlement, with an additional $320 million coming from Dominion Energy. In 2019, Dominion purchased SCANA, who partnered with Santee Cooper in the V.C. Summer project.
Santee Cooper is a state agency that provides electricity directly or indirectly to 2 million people across the state. Its board of directors is appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate.
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Santee Cooper approves settlement over abandoned Pee Dee power plant project."
