If you’re looking for the most comprehensive list of numbers concerning the decision by SCE&G and Santee Cooper to abandon construction of two reactors at the VC Summer nuclear site, you’re in luck. This is it.
Early on, I started compiling a list with numbers and other bits of information about the project, so I wouldn’t have to keep looking them up. And I decided to share the information, and update it periodically with additional information.
The project
$11 billion: Original projected cost of the two reactors
$20 billion: Minimum projected cost, due to delays and cost overruns, when SCE&G and Santee Cooper abandoned the project
$9 billion: What SCE&G and Santee Cooper spent on the project before abandoning it
$8 billion: Amount Dominion says it will save customers over SCANA’s plan
$3.3 billion: Amount Dominion says it wants to collect from customers
$1.9 billion: My estimate of total Dominion would collect as a profit on the $3.3 billion (Dominion says it hasn’t calculated the amount, but it seeks to collect a 10.25% return on the $3.3 billion investment over 20 years, with other caveats that analysts say would cut that 10.25% by about half.)
0.669: Number of shares of Dominion Energy stock that stockholders would receive for each share of SCANA stock, or about $55.35 per share. (SCANA stock was selling for $38.87 a share when the purchase was announced, down from $73.25 a share a year earlier.)
Here’s another way of looking at Dominion’s rate proposal:
$19,440: Amount average residential customer would have paid for reactors ($27 per month for 60 years) under original SCE&G proposal
$13,200: Amount average residential customer would pay for reactors ($22 per month for 50 years) under SCE&G’s November proposal
$3,800: Amount average residential customer would pay for reactors ($20 per month, reducing annually for 20 years, plus $1,000 refund) under Dominion’s proposal.
SCE&G
$4.9 billion: Amount of borrowed and stockholder money SCE&G has invested and hopes to recoup
$2 billion: Tax credits SCE&G hopes to receive to offset $4.9 billion investment
$1 billion: Payment SCE&G received through contract with Westinghouse parent Toshiba to offset $4.9 billion investment
$2.2 billion: Amount SCE&G initially said it would seek to recoup from ratepayers if it received the tax credits and Toshiba payment
$1.7 billion: Amount SCE&G customers had paid in rate increases to bankroll the two new reactors as of July 31, 2017
$37 million: Amount SCE&G customers are still paying per month to bankroll the two new reactors
9: Rate hikes SCE&G passed on to its customers to pay for the now-abandoned reactors
18 percent: Portion of SCE&G bills that pay for the nuclear project
15 percent: Portion of SCE&G’s bills customers would pay for the project under SCANA’s proposal to reduce bills by 3.5 percent.
$1.4 billion: Dividends SCANA has paid to shareholders in the past four years.
$21.4 million: Total in annual performance-based bonuses — some to reward good work on the nuclear project — that SCANA executives received over the past decade
$595 million: SCANA earnings for 2016
$119 million: SCANA losses for 2017
$908 million: Amount SCANA wrote off in 2017 because it concluded that it was“probable” that it wouldn’t be allowed to collect all the money it hopes to for the nuclear project
SANTEE COOPER
$4 billion: Amount borrowed by Santee Cooper, which will have to be repaid by someone
$831 million: Amount Santee Cooper received through contract with Westinghouse parent Toshiba to offset $4 billion investment
$540 million: Amount Santee Cooper customers have paid in rate increases to bankroll the two new reactors
5: Rate hikes, so far, that Santee Cooper has passed on to its customers to pay for the now-abandoned reactors
4.5 percent: Portion of Santee Cooper bills that pay for the nuclear project (down from 8 percent in 2017)
$800,000 a year: Amount Santee Cooper CEO Lonnie Carter will receive in pension and retirement pay, in addition to an additional six months’ salary and the $858,577 he has in another Santee Cooper retirement account similar to a 401(k) style plan
$70,650: Total amount of bonuses that six Santee Cooper executives were paid since 2011 for their work on the nuclear project
$19 million: Amount Santee Cooper expects to spend per year to preserve nuclear site and equipment
SC energy providers
Santee Cooper serves about 1 million customers, which it says translates into about 2 million people. It has 174,000 retail customers, 26 military and large industrial customers and four wholesale customers, which in turn provide power to more than 764,000 individual and business customers
Duke Energy has 733,000 customers
SCE&G has 698,000 customers
SC energy rates
SCE&G: 14.56 cents per kilowatt hour (this would be 11.93 cents without the nuclear surcharge)
Santee Cooper: 11.62 cents per kilowatt hour (this would be 11.10 cents without the nuclear surcharge)
Duke Energy: 11.01 cents per kilowatt hour
Duke Progress: 10.01 cents per kilowatt hour
(Virginia Electric and Power, owned by Dominion Energy: 11.19 cents per kilowatt hour)
* Rates are from 2016, the most recent year for which comparisons are avaiable.
How a project is abandoned
S.C. Code Section 58-33-220(G). If the utility decides to abandon the project after issuance of a prudency determination under this section, then the preconstruction costs related to that project may be deferred, with AFUDC* being calculated on the balance, and may be included in rates in the utility’s next general rate proceeding or revised rates proceeding, provided that as to the decision to abandon the plant, the utility shall bear the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the decision was prudent. Without in any way limiting the effect of Section 58-33-225(D), recovery of capital costs and the utility’s cost of capital associated with them may be disallowed only to the extent that the failure by the utility to anticipate or avoid the allegedly imprudent costs, or to minimize the magnitude of the costs, was imprudent considering the information available at the time that the utility could have acted to avoid or minimize the costs. Pending an order in the general rate proceeding or revised rates proceeding, the utility, at its discretion, may commence to amortize to cost of service the balance of the preconstruction costs related to the abandoned project over a period equal to the period during which the costs were incurred, or five years, whichever is greater.
* ‘AFUDC’ means the allowance for funds used during construction of a plant calculated according to regulatory accounting principles.
S.C. Code Section 58-33-280(K). Where a plant is abandoned after a base load review order approving rate recovery has been issued, the capital costs and AFUDC related to the plant shall nonetheless be recoverable under this article provided that the utility shall bear the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the decision to abandon construction of the plant was prudent. Without limiting the effect of Section 58-33-275(A), recovery of capital costs and the utility’s cost of capital associated with them may be disallowed only to the extent that the failure by the utility to anticipate or avoid the allegedly imprudent costs, or to minimize the magnitude of the costs, was imprudent considering the information available at the time that the utility could have acted to avoid or minimize the costs. The commission shall order the amortization and recovery through rates of the investment in the abandoned plant as part of an order adjusting rates under this article.
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