New $5B Canadys natural gas plant receives approval from SC regulators

Dominion Energy and state-owned utility Santee Cooper can build a large natural gas plant in Colleton County, South Carolina’s Public Service Commission determined Thursday afternoon.

The 2,200 megawatt station received some opposition from members of the public and environmental groups over its $5 billion price tag and potential impact to the ACE Basin. Officials from Colleton County said the natural gas plant could bring economic opportunities to the region.

Dominion and Santee Cooper, which will split the cost and generated power, argued the new natural gas plant at Canadys would be necessary to meet larger energy demands. The Public Service Commission agreed the project was necessary and met environmental requirements. The new plant will be built at the site of a former coal station.

“We have one obligation, and that is to serve the load,” Dominion president Keller Kissam told reporters in March. “So when you flip the light switch in the studio at home, the power comes on. And that’s what Canadys is about.”

The two utilities requested to build the plant in mid-December. Just under five months later, the project was approved. A new energy law, signed last year, required the Public Service Commission to make a decision on projects like the Canadys natural gas plant within six months of an application.

“We need to get the gas line first so we can get the energy to the people,” said state Rep. Gil Gatch, R-Dorchester. “That’s the way we reduce energy costs and make up for the loss energy production that’s we’re going to experience in a few years.”

The energy law also allowed Dominion and Santee Cooper to work together on the Canadys natural gas plant together.

State Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, voted against the energy bill last year and said he hoped the Public Service Commission and the state Office of Regulatory Affairs kept a “close watch” on the project. Santee Cooper and SCE&G, which turned into Dominion, bungled the build out of two nuclear reactors at V.C. Summer, costing ratepayers $9 billion for the unfinished project.

“I think anytime Dominion and Santee Cooper are partnering on something, you need to be real careful,” Massey said Thursday.

Environmental advocates and members of the public voiced concern about the plant’s potential to damage the ACE Basin and pollute the region. The plant will also require the build out of a 71-mile pipeline stretching across Colleton and Hampton counties, including through private properties.

Public Service Commission chairman Delton Powers said he understood environmental concerns associated with the plant.

“That is not the easiest one in the world for me to vote on, but I do support it. That is a very precious area we have in our state, and I don’t think there’s anything in the country that’s anything like it or near to the ACE Basin,” Powers said.

Jalen Brooks-Knepfle, an energy project manager at Conservation Voters of South Carolina, said the commission ignored testimony from the public in their decision in an email to The State.

“Although Commissioners spent a long time discussing public testimony in their business meeting, the actual substance of their directive ignores public concerns on cost, air pollution and industrialization of the ACE Basin,” she wrote in an email.

Some also worried the cost of the plant, which doubled between mid-2024 and the end of 2025, could show up on customer power bills. Dominion is requesting a rate hike but said earlier this year the Canadys project did not impact the proposed raise. Santee Cooper is also planning to raise residential electric rates by more than 9% over the next two years and said investment in the large natural gas plant contributed to the planned hike.

“I think that the residential customers, the small business customers in our state, our working families, will be paying the tab, and they’ll be paying it early because of the new energy bill,” said John Brooker, senior vice president of policy and government relations at Conservation Voters of South Carolina.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 2:49 PM with the headline "New $5B Canadys natural gas plant receives approval from SC regulators."