SCE&G files for rate adjustment under Base Load Review Act
June 28, 2016
CAYCE, SC – South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation (NYSE: SCG), filed with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff for an overall 3.06 percent increase to its approved electric rates under provisions of a state law known as the Base Load Review Act, or BLRA. The BLRA effectively reduces the cost of building nuclear power plants in South Carolina by allowing the state’s regulated utilities to adjust rates annually during construction of such plants to recover related financing costs.
As anticipated, the rate adjustment earlier in 2016 to pass lower fuel costs associated with generating and purchasing power to meet the needs of customers more than offsets this increase for electric customers.
“By passing lower fuel costs from our efforts to ensure a balanced and diversified fuel mix to our customers, residential customers will see lower bills at the end of the year than they were receiving at the beginning of 2016,” said SCE&G’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve Byrne.
SCE&G and state-owned utility Santee Cooper are jointly building two nuclear electric-generating units at the site of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C. The most current publicly available information regarding construction of the new units is available in the Q1 2016 BLRA filing on the SCANA investor relations’ website at www.scana.com/en/investor-relations/.
If the PSC approves today’s filing, SCE&G’s approved electric rates would increase in November as follows:
- 3.1 percent for residential customers (The current monthly bill of a customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity would increase $4.44, going from $143.67 to $148.11 at the end of 2016. The monthly bill at the end of 2016 is lower than the bill of $149.58 at the end of 2015.)
- 3.0 percent for small commercial customers
- 3.3 percent for medium commercial customers
- 3.0 percent for large commercial/industrial customers.
SCANA Corporation, 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. Information about SCANA and its businesses is available on the company’s website at www.scana.com.
