Criminal Defense Lawyer in Santee, SC

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – Santee Cooper received the 2023 Lower Region Group Leadership Award from the South Carolina Litter Control Association and Palmetto Pride/Keep SC Beautiful. The award recognizes Santee Cooper for its partnership with Keep Conway Beautiful and its commitment to helping with monthly cleanups for the organization.

“Our team strives to not only be a part of the communities where we live but to make them better,” said Energy Advisor Parker Diedrich, who accepted the award and helps lead the events for Santee Cooper. “We enjoy helping Keep Conway Beautiful and similar organizations around the area.”

Keep Conway Beautiful meets monthly to pick up litter within the city. In 2022, 71 Santee Cooper team members helped clean up 720 pounds of litter. So far this year, 85 team members have picked up 430 pounds of litter along more than four miles of roadway.

“Santee Cooper employees reached out to me with the initial idea of the cleanups and helped to establish our first ever ‘Utility Service Day’ that resulted in us cleaning up almost 600 pounds of litter in an hour with a little over 75 volunteers from several utilities for this one event,” said Nevada Mileur, Program Coordinator for Keep Conway Beautiful. “These cleanups would not exist without the hard work and dedication of the Santee Cooper employees. We are appreciative that they partnered with us to make a difference in our community.”

Santee Cooper received the award from the South Carolina Litter Control Association and PalmettoPride/Keep SC Beautiful at a Sept. 7 awards ceremony. The City of Conway recognized Santee Cooper’s award at its Sept. 18 council meeting.

“A reliable volunteer network is vital to the KSCB affiliates,” said PalmettoPride executive director Sarah Lyles. “With support from Santee Cooper, Keep Conway Beautiful continues to be a cornerstone of the community.”

Santee Cooper

Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s largest power provider, the ultimate source of electricity for 2 million people across the state, and one of America’s Best Midsize Employers as named by Forbes. Through its low-cost, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity and water services, and through innovative partnerships and initiatives that attract and retain industry and jobs, Santee Cooper helps power South Carolina. To learn more, visit www.santeecooper.com and follow #PoweringSC on social media.

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – Eight years after its last such review, the Santee Cooper Board of Directors today approved a comprehensive study of its electric rates to address a projected revenue shortfall beginning in 2025.

The study is expected to take approximately a year and will include rate needs for residential, commercial, industrial, lighting and municipal customers. Any recommendations from that study would require a Board-authorized public review and comment period of several months, most likely beginning in summer 2024, prior to any action on new rates. That public review and comment period would include:

“Santee Cooper’s electric rates are very competitive and in 2025 will have been stable for eight years,” said Jimmy Staton, president and CEO. “The rate study is necessary to ensure we can continue to invest in the reliability of our system as it grows, while also continuing to transition to a greener power mix. We remain committed to keeping our prices as low as possible for all of our customers.”

Santee Cooper has not increased its electric rates since April 2017, the second phased adjustment called for after the 2015 study. Most Santee Cooper rates are currently frozen through Dec. 31, 2024, and this rate study will not affect the rate freeze.

Santee Cooper’s management will develop a process compliant with state law prior to proposing any new rates or adjustments to existing rates. That process will be transparent and offer multiple opportunities for public review and input. Customers will be notified directly, and general public notice will be offered, about those public input opportunities. There is also a web page dedicated to this process, which will be updated throughout with information such as process milestones, public input opportunities, any proposed rate adjustments, and public meeting dates, times and locations. This web page can be accessed through a link on Santee Cooper’s homepage or directly at www.santeecooper.com/ratestudy.

Santee Cooper

Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s largest power provider, the ultimate source of electricity for 2 million people across the state, and one of America’s Best Midsize Employers as named by Forbes. Through its low-cost, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity and water services, and through innovative partnerships and initiatives that attract and retain industry and jobs, Santee Cooper helps power South Carolina. To learn more, visit www.santeecooper.com and follow #PoweringSC on social media.

Santee Cooper could see little pushback from groups representing public and environmental interests in South Carolina utilities matters as it seeks regulatory approval to buy an Upstate power plant.

The state-owned utility needs approval from the S.C. Public Service Commission for the $17 million purchase of Cherokee County Cogeneration Partners LLC, which includes a 25-year-old natural gas generating station in Gaffney.

The commission will hold a hearing on Sept. 5 to provide a forum for members of the public and interested parties to express their opinions about the purchase before it approves or denies the request.

The six-member Joint Bond Review Committee must also put a stamp on the Cherokee plant acquisition before Santee Cooper could move ahead with the deal.

Jimmy Staton, Santee Cooper’s CEO said during a recent board meeting that he isn’t expecting pushback and is prepared to close on the deal at the end of September and quickly integrate the nearly 100 megawatts of power into its system.

The S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff,, which represents the public interest in utility matters, said it was reviewing the filing and had not determined its position.

Meanwhile, the Coastal Conservation League, a nonprofit environmental group, has no plan to opposed the purchase.

“In the big scheme of things, this purchase of an existing plant providing 100 MW of support for Santee Cooper’s approximately 5,000 MW peak load is not, in our view, a major issue,” said Eddy Moore, energy program director for the Charleston-based organization.

Moore said the group is more concerned with ensuring the careful consideration of potential major investments in large new power plant projects.

The state’s largest power provider serving about 1 million end-use customers submitted a plan in May that outlined the resources it will need over the next 15 years to meet rising customer demand as South Carolina experiences substantial population and industrial growth.

The plan includes a new natural gas plant construction project, possibly in partnership with Dominion Energy. The “baseload” facility would run consistently, produce enough power to run as many as 520,000 homes, and provide a bridge to adding more renewable energy as coal-fired units are retired.

“Purchasing the older plant shows a better use of existing resources as a flexible backup for the increasing amounts of renewable energy Santee Cooper plans to procure,” said Moore.

But the Moncks Corner-based utility has a more immediate reason to add the Cherokee plant. Santee Cooper will need the electricity the plant can provide — enough to power 16,000 homes — this winter and through 2028 to meet short-term demand growth.

The near-term supply is “necessary to provide and maintain safe and reliable electric service in a cost-effective manner,” the utility told regulators in a petition in June.

Santee Cooper utility has been buying power since 2022 under a purchase agreement with the Cherokee plant, which was built in 1998 and sold to New York-based LS Power in 2011.

By taking ownership, the utility has said it will be able to provide additional reliability to ratepayers.

Central Electric Power Cooperative — which provides power to 18 cooperatives across the state — counts on Santee Cooper’s reliable power supply and supports the purchase.

“In today’s ever-changing energy landscape, having options in our power supply is critical to our mission of keeping the lights on and power bills low,” said Rob Hostettler, Central’s CEO.

Hostettler said Central — the state-owned utility’s largest customer — is “excited to work with and support Santee Cooper in purchasing an existing, in-state plant that will help provide reliable, affordable power to our growing state.”

Santee Cooper will need an estimated 1,500 more megawatts of capacity by 2030 when the coal-fired Winyah Station in Georgetown County is retired, said Rahul Dembla, the utility’s chief planning officer. That doesn’t account for economic development activity that could drive demand higher.

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Charleston doesn’t have a lock on the large housing developments sprouting up in the region.

Developers plan to build a 1,000-home, gated community on Lake Marion on the edge of Santee State Park near Santee, just west of Interstate 95.

McCord’s Ferry, with 27 homes on the ground and another 165 in development, will be built as a master-planned neighborhood on 678 acres off Cleveland Street at Audubon Boulevard.

Audubon Homes of Charleston is developing the site in Orangeburg and Calhoun counties. Lead developer Micah Simon expects buildout to occur over a 15- to 20-year span.

Amenities include a private boat ramp with community docks and nature trails connecting to the state park as well as a community center with a gym, pool, pickleball courts, ballroom and meeting space.

Real Estate

A two-day open house event is set for 11 a.m.-3 p.m. May 20 and noon-3 p.m. May 21 at 122 Twisted Oak Trail, northeast of Elloree.

Prospective homebuyers can explore the property and enjoy music, raffles, giveaways and complimentary food and refreshments.

Homes range from 1,500 square feet to 3,600 square feet with prices starting in the low $300,000s for the smaller residences. The median price of a house in South Carolina in March was $318,000.

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Fielding Home for Funerals has been in business since 1912, but the longtime family business’s owners decided to sell the downtown property earlier this year. A change in the restrictive covenants to allow school use is being requested.

2: Number of stores a Florida-based company will have after it opens a new shop on King Street in Charleston.

215: Number of stores across the Southeast that a Charleston-based convenience store chain will own after two new deals are finalized soon.

6,000: Square footage of new dog-boarding shop opening May 15 in North Charleston.

Real Estate

+ Second act: A new Mediterranean restaurant from the creators of The Grocery in Charleston is coming to Mount Pleasant.

+ Sales slip: The number of homes sold across the Charleston region dipped for the 20th consecutive month in April as the median home price continued to rise.

The ground floor of the King and Queen Building in downtown Charleston is undergoing a makeover for five retail tenants. Four of the spaces have been leased. See the retailers here.

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Santee Cooper plans to spend $17 million to buy a power plant in the Upstate to meet short-term customer demand triggered by residential and economic growth.

The state-owned utility’s board of directors on April 21 approved the purchase of Cherokee County Cogeneration Partners LLC, which includes a 25-year-old natural gas generating station in Gaffney.

The deal still requires approval from the S.C. Public Service Commission and the legislative Joint Bond Review Committee.

The Moncks Corner-based utility said it needs the 90-megawatt plant east of Spartanburg to ensure it has enough capacity to meet the needs of its customers, including homes, businesses and the state’s electric cooperatives.

“We need a quick power supply for new industry and new people, and that’s a great problem to have,” Santee Cooper CEO Jimmy Staton said.

He added that the Gaffney plant “offers an existing, in-state solution that matches well with our generating portfolio and will help provide the reliable, affordable power our customers have come to expect.”

Santee Cooper began buying power from the Cherokee plant last year under a short-term agreement with New York-based LS Power, which has owned the plant since 2011. It has been a reliable source of electricity, according to Marty Watson, chief power supply officer.

Central Electric Power Cooperatives, Santee Cooper’s largest customer, said Friday that it would endorse the purchase and seek formal support from its board in May.

The acquisition won’t solve Santee Cooper’s long-term needs. The utility is expected to provide details about how it plans to meet future demand on its system May 15, when it submits its plan to the Public Service Commission.

An estimated 1,500 more megawatts of capacity will be needed by 2030 when the coal-fired Winyah Station in Georgetown County is retired, said Rahul Dembla, the utility’s chief planning officer. That doesn’t account for economic activity that could drive demand higher.

All scenarios that Santee Cooper used to determine the best plan point to a diversified portfolio that includes a new power generating unit. Plans are underway to build a gas-fired unit at an undisclosed location in rural Hampton County.

Santee Cooper also is aiming to add more solar capacity each year beginning in 2026, reaching 1,500 megawatts by 2030 and more than 2,000 megawatts the following year.

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