Potential rate hikes in store for SCE&G customers

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CAYCE S.C. (WOLO) — This week Public Service Commission will meet to consider another rate hike to fund the continued construction of two nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Facility in Jenkinsville. Clean, reliable energy , according spokesperson Eric Boomhower that’s what SCE & G’s two new nuclear plants will provide when complete. However the completion dates have been delayed and and costs climbed from 6.3 to 6.8 billion dollars. “The primary issue we’ve been dealing with are some issues with fabrication of sub modules, it’s part of the components that are put together to assemble the plant,” says Boomhower. State laws allow for annual rate hikes to offset the cost of constructing plants. On Wednesday the Public Service Commission is expected to make its decision on this year’s rate increase of 2.78% According to Boomhower, “If approved by the pubilc service commission you’re a customers using 1,000 kilowatts of electricity, you’ll see your bill go up about $4 a month as a result of this increase.” However, the nearly 3% increase doesn’t sit well with all SCE &G customers who say that the annual hikes are beginning to add up. Tom Clements, Director of the Savannah River Site Watch says, “It’s starting to have a real significant economic impact on SCE&G rate payers. I think they should reject the rate increase or significantly reduce it.” For those customers concern is mounting for Wednesday’s decision. According to Clements, “After the rate hike is approved by the Public Service Commission, about 15.5% of the bill is going to be to pay for the reactors that are under construction so the rate payer is getting nothing from the project at this point but we’re having to pay all the costs and take all the risks.” But Boomhower says in this case the risk is worth the reward. The SCE&G spokesperson tells ABC Columbia “By recovering those financing costs during construction as opposed to waiting until the project is complete we actually lower the cost of the project by about a billion dollars. Over the life of the plants then, that actually reduces the amount we’ll have to collect from our customers by about $4 billion.” While the project is not scheduled to be complete until June of 2020, if approved by the PSC customers can expect to see the effects of the new rates by the end of October.