V.C. Summer is a symptom of a larger problem
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VC Summer Is A Symptom Of A Larger Problem
In 2008 and together with nuclear construction company Westinghouse, South Carolina electric utilities South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) and Santee Cooper announced that they would begin building two new nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer plant in Jenkinsville, South Carolina. The trio of companies estimated that the project would cost $9.8 billion and that both units would be operational by no later than 2018.
However, it quickly became apparent that this was a bad deal for South Carolinians, as the new V.C. Summer construction was marred by delays and massive cost overruns. In 2017, Westinghouse filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and with the project no longer viable, SCE&G and Santee Cooper abandoned their plans altogether later that year. This left ratepayers holding much of the tab for the incomplete reactors.
The aftermath of the V.C. Summer debacle has since sparked considerable debate among regulators, legislators and ratepayers, all of whom have sought both scapegoats and answers about what went wrong. However, V.C. Summer is simply one symptom of a more fundamental problem: South Carolina’s regulatory framework itself encourages such behavior in electricity markets. Until this is addressed, South Carolinians can expect more imprudent behavior from regulated utilities.
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