Regulators approve SCE&G electric rate increase request

State regulators on Wednesday green-lighted an average 2.66% increase in retail electric rates for South Carolina Electric & Gas.

The rate increase is calculated to increase the company’s revenues from the sale of electricity by $64,428,000, according to a press release. The new rates will be effective for bills issued on and after Nov. 27.

SCE&G filed for the increase in June under provisions of South Carolina’s Base Load Review Act (BLRA), a law enacted in 2007 that allows for annual adjustments to electric rates during construction of the reactor units to cover financing costs associated with the project.

A rate adjustment approved by the Public Service Commission earlier this year to allow the utility to pass along lower fuel costs for generating and purchasing power offsets the impact of the latest rate increase, the release said.

“By passing lower fuel costs from our efforts to ensure a balanced and diversified fuel mix, residential customers will receive lower bills for similar usage at the end of 2016 than they received at the end of 2015,” said Steve Byrne, SCE&G’s COO.

With the state-approved increase, the following rates will go into effect Nov. 27:

• 2.69% for residential customers (the monthly bill of a customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity would increase $3.86, going to $147.53 from $143.67. The monthly bill at the end of 2016 is about $2 lower than the bill of $149.58 at the end of 2015.)
• 2.59% for small commercial customers.
• 2.83% for medium commercial customers.
• 2.57% for large commercial/industrial customers.

SCE&G, principal subsidiary of Cayce-based energy provider SCANA Corp., and state-operated Santee Cooperare building two 1,117-megawatt nuclear electric-generating units at the site of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville.
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