Coal-fired power plant shelved
Co-op's decision to buy electricity from Duke Energy among reasons
By Allyson Bird
PINOPOLIS -- Three years' worth of controversy surrounding Santee Cooper's planned Pee Dee coal plant all but died Monday when the public utility's board voted to suspend the project.
Rendering provided by Santee Cooper
An artist's rendering of Santee Cooper's proposed coal-fired power plant in Florence County.
The decision hinged on three key reasons: The economic recession lightened Santee Cooper's demand and pulled sales down 5 percent from last year; proposed federal regulations call for new, costly technology on plants; and the utility's biggest customer, Central Electric Power Cooperative, plans to shift 1,000 megawatts of its load to North Carolina-based Duke Energy beginning in 2013.
Santee Cooper president and chief executive Lonnie Carter said that although the vote was termed a "suspension," that language merely creates a safety net in case the Central deal falls through or another major change in business restores the need for more power.
Laura Varn, Santee Cooper vice president of corporate communications, called that possibility remote and said the board would have to take formal action to restart plans or to cancel the plant for good. Although utility officials would not provide a time line for making that final step, Varn noted a March deadline for Central to back out from its transfer without penalty.
The vote marked a major victory for environmental groups around the state that had watched the plant progress over the past few years. Carter praised the decision as an example of Santee Cooper doing "the right thing."
"They know they can count on us, our stakeholders," he said. "Our mission is not to build power plants. Our mission is to provide reliable power." As of July, the utility had spent $242 million on the facility. Carter said a lot of those costs stem from pricey equipment, which Santee Cooper plans to sell after the board rules out the plant altogether.
Santee Cooper also received an air permit from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and pursued additional permits from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Previous stories
Power plant gets DHEC permit, published 12/17/08
Board will review permit, published 01/09/09
Coal-fired power plant not preference, published 04/17/09
Chairman O.L. Thompson stressed at Monday's meeting that the utility should halt the plant in a manner that makes it easy to resume in case the facility becomes necessary later. He also called the suspension "a shame in some respects" because the generator would have created 1,200 jobs in an economically depressed corner of the state.
Santee Cooper began planning the $1.2 billion plant more than three years ago. A recent analysis commissioned by the Coastal Conservation League, a primary opponent of the project, found the generator estimate totaled hundreds of millions of dollars less than similar generator estimates elsewhere in the country.
The report also determined that the facility would release millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually, a costly sum if lawmakers choose to tax those emissions.
While detractors deemed it risky, Santee Cooper officials described the plant as necessary. But that argument largely collapsed when Duke offered to take a portion of business from Central, a customer that accounts for half of Santee Cooper's total load.
Michael Couick, chief executive of Central's umbrella organization Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, said the business transfer makes sense because of the price of new plant equipment required to stay with Santee Cooper. Plus, he said, Santee Cooper relies more heavily than Duke on fossil fuels.
"If you look at Congress regulating carbon emissions specifically, it would be more affordable in the long run," he said.
Santee Cooper and Central first forged a relationship in 1981, according to Santee Cooper senior vice president R.M. Singletary III. The current agreement lasts through 2023 with a 10-year extension.
If all goes as planned in transferring some of the load to Duke, that arrangement will extend the contract through 2030.
Central must elect to make the switch by Aug. 31 and can withdraw without penalty no later than March 31.
The transition would begin at the start of 2013, gradually working up to 1,000 megawatts. Santee Cooper officials stressed that the hard part lies ahead, with a host of state and federal approvals needed to make the switch.
Environmental groups, which came from around the state to attend the meeting, praised the decision to suspend the plant in the meantime.
Peggy Brown, a board member for the South Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club and national resource director with the League of Women Voters, said the vote marked a great day for South Carolinians. Brown lives in Florence, near the plant's intended site.
Ben Moore with the Coastal Conservation League said the decision "positioned South Carolina well to develop the state's next chapter when it comes to energy, and that is no longer going to be coal."
And from Blan Holman, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center: "It is fitting that on this last day of the Cash for Clunkers program, the Santee Cooper board has spared South Carolinians from buying a ... clunker coal plant."
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Comments
theronce (anonymous) says...
Goodby, local jobs and energy. One down and ______ to go.
August 25, 2009 at 7:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
blah_blah_blah (anonymous) says...
or..... Hello, local jobs and energy produced from solar, wind, landfill methane capture, other renewables. (all of which, Santee Cooper is doing)
August 25, 2009 at 7:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BlackReign (anonymous) says...
You got that right theronce.
blah blah blah, thats exactly what '...solar, wind, landfill methane capture, other renewables' has promised for years and yet to deliver, just ignorant drivel...blah blah blah LMAO!
August 25, 2009 at 7:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
yird (anonymous) says...
So now that the Sierra Club, Coastal Conservation League and Southern Environmental Law Center have saved us from certain doom and untold financial cost from potential taxes related to lunatic legislation being proposed to reduce CO2 emissions, we can now expect to see some nice "clean" nuclear power plant in the future.
Never happen!
We'll all have to buy little windmills that wait for a breeze to charge batteries that can only power a few lights before they go dead, or solar panels that require an acre of surface area to power our most basic energy needs.
Maybe the morons in DC will come up with some new programs that encourages us turn in washing machines for a nice new scrub board and wash tub, stoves for a outdoor grill, computers for an abacus and a Wigi board and of course we could really save the planet if we got rid of all the energy sucking vehicles, be they electric, or fossil fuel, and ride bicycles like our Chinese friends used to do before they started to move out of the stone age.
I wonder how much energy is consumed by the printing presses our government uses to print the endless supply of worthless paper they so magnanimously refer to as money?
What a "Brave New World" we now live in.
August 25, 2009 at 8:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
R_U_Kidding_Me (anonymous) says...
yird, you're depressing. Unfortunatly there is truth in your words.
August 25, 2009 at 8:38 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bluefin695 (anonymous) says...
Yird, bold but an absolute truth.
And No Alt/Renewable Energy screed is complete without the ancient disclaimer:
"Hydrogen is the fuel of the future, and it always will be."
August 25, 2009 at 8:59 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kyjello (anonymous) says...
So BHO got his cap n' trade socialistic crap thru anyhow. He vowed he'd make it so expensive to build a new coal fired plant no one could afford to do so. Much to my regret, all those doom and gloom posts on this thread are spot on. Kool aid has 2 new flavors: hope and change.
August 25, 2009 at 9:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Hobcaw (anonymous) says...
No coal.
No nuke.
No power.
No jobs.
No future.
hummmmmmmmmmm
August 25, 2009 at 10:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zoomru (anonymous) says...
TAXPAYER.....ALERT !!!!
Re-read this article....!!
Then, take a cruise through all other newspapers across our state to see how this is getting coverage...!!!!
This is by far the biggest single shift in WHAT...!?!?!
Is the 2 Billion that would have been spent on this PLANT going to DUKE POWER...!?!?!
Since we will now not need the 2 Billion + for this plant ....WILL OUR RATES go ..DOWN..!?!?
Will the 2+ Billion that was earmarked be spent on windfarms across our entire state..!?!
Will it be spent to upgrade our GRID..!?!?! After all...from all accounts the FRENCH power grid is far superior...!?!?!
MY BACKSIDE....!!!!!! (Fist POUDZ!!!)
Will this 2+ Billion be spent to expand our landfills for the Methane Tapping SCAM..????
Will the 2+ Billion be spent to BRIBE the anointed officials into permitting more NUCLEAR power plants to use the FUEL that is sitting in AIKEN instead of railing or shipping in more foreign COAL...!?!?! Thus reducing the consumption of foreign DIESEL that it takes to get the COAL here..??
Citizens, ..THINK !!!! Most phone calls and emails that I receive are asking me if I'm against COAL..!!? I AM NOT..!! I am for ALL CHOICES..!!! Its the fact that the MEN in POWER are so entrenched with FOREIGN OIL that it is slowly killing us economically.!!! There is no "Silver Bullet" to solve our ENERGY problem. It must be attacked from all sides and SOURCES..!!!!
All Utility WORKERS must confront their immediate management with firm words...!!! Are we going to shut down a running COAL plant.....?? NO !!!! Are we going to BUILD NEW ONES.....??? NO !!!! We must not depend on one form of ....ENERGY !!!! Have we not learned our lesson from the 70's ...??? Last SUMMER...!?! Obviously, Lonnie CARTER is starting to listen to his WORKERS...!!!! The UTILITY WORKERS are not FOOLS...!!! They know they have no CHOICE at the pump or the light switch...!!!! If you have no CHOICE...you are a SLAVE....!!!! Workers realize that the greatest ENERGY Source we have in South Carolina is the ENERGY that Lonnie is NOT TAPPING to SELL...!!!! Our very Ground WATER.....Our very FREE wind above our heads and offshore.....Our very ALGAE Bio-Diesel that our state's FARMERS could be producing TODAY...!!!!!
COME on WORKERS.....keep it UP !! Shove the TRUTH right back down
.......LONNIE's freakin' throat..!!!
......all PUBLIC SERVANT's throats....!!!
We have the technology.....
We have the WILL.......
We have the Internet to organize......
We MUST DEMAND CHOICES....as Americans !!!!!
Troops.....what does this article tell US all about Lonnie CArter and all other utility Board Members and CEOs in our state....!?!?!
August 25, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scfirefly (anonymous) says...
That Zoomru...Wow! Is he convincing or what?!
August 25, 2009 at 10:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zoomru (anonymous) says...
Lonnie CARTER.....!!!!!
YES ...YOU !!! Front and CENTER !!!!!!!
"Petty Officer" Carter.......
1) How "OLD" is this "NEWS"...????
2) What are you doing today...???
3) When is the LAST time you have been out to the HANFORD Test Site..?? Idaho National LABS..?? Ames Research Facility..????
4) Where are you LEADING this STATE...!?!?
5) Why have you been SILENT on who you would support as OUR next Governor...!!!???
6) Do you listen to your BOARD MEMBERS..?? HOW MANY Stand up to you ..?? DO they all Agree with YOU...??? How many THINK Differently than .....YOU ???
7) Where can all citizens go to see and READ and think about YOUR True personal thoughts on our state's ENERGY ......SOLUTIONS..!?! NO SANTEE Drivel....!!!!! Do you not agree that OUR state's paper's comment section is a VIABLE venue for your worthy thoughts...!!!!
8) Do you honestly have a PASSION for your DUTIES....!?! DO YOU..??
9) At what point and time in your career are you going to get a CLUE and ....LEAD ?????
Well, Lonnie.....there are 9 very serious questions that this article FAILS to answer about YOU...!!!! Its time for you to STAND and DELIVER...!!!! No more sassy footin' around...!! You need to get your head out of the "MANHOLE" that is providing your offices POE..!!!!!
Lonnie, if you need ratepayers to reiterate your MISSION.......we will !!!! We expect you to be the leader that your Board and "wonky" elected officials have no clue that YOU ARE....!!! Get busy ...LONNIE !!!!!
Lonnie, we highly suggest that you get cozy with your significant other and watch "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"....and think about this while watching....How many forms of CANDY Production did Willy have..!?! How many FLAVORS..!?! Well, Lonnie "Wonka" Carter...how many different forms of ENERGY are you SELLING....!?!?!
THINK......LONNIE !!!!!!
August 25, 2009 at 11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Badgersouth (anonymous) says...
Conserving energy and implementing energy efficiency measures are the easiest and least expensive ways to meet South Carolina's energy needs. If the Santee Cooper's Board decision to shelve the proposed coal-fired power plant on the Pee Dee is the beginning of such a trend, perhaps common sense will prevail in this state after all.
August 25, 2009 at 2:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
zoomru (anonymous) says...
Well...Well...WELL !!!
Utility Board of Directors across South Carolina....can you understand what BADGERsouth has questioned you all on.???
YOUR Common SENSE..!?!
Lets review some rather blatant examples of WHAT... for fellow SC citizens to consider about "Ya'll BOARD Memba'z"...!!!
FACTS.....
1) GE Buildz wind turbinez right here in our STATE.....
2) WE HAVE .....WIND !!
3) We just had Hurricane "Bill" pass along our coast but had no wind Turbines up to harness this ....POWER !!!!!
4) Are you BOARD Membaz planning on STORING this Wind ENERGY for FUTURE USE....???? Peak LOAD periods...?!?!
5) We have wind on HOGBACK Moutain...!!
6) What forms of REVENUE do you get from your VAST miles upon miles of ratepayer funded powerline EASEMENTS...??? Uh..oh !?!?! What will your WORKERS think when they learn that their PENSIONS would be WHAT ....with this untapped source of revenue...!?! YOUR VERY CUSTOMERS...!?!?!
7) ....this article really does justice to the Mentality it takes to be a BOARD MEMBER.
8) When the Westvaco Flag is blowing in the WIND, it is an example of exactly why OUR state and why YOU Board Memberz are FAILING our state.....miserably !!!!!
Citizens......stop to consider Badgersouth's very good observation and comment !!!!!!
August 25, 2009 at 2:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
"The report also determined that the facility would release millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually, a costly sum if lawmakers choose to tax those emissions".
--------------------------------------------
The people that breath in this state release millions of tons of CO2.
"Peggy Brown, a board member for the South Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club and national resource director with the League of Women Voters, said the vote marked a great day for South Carolinians. Brown lives in Florence, near the plant's intended site".
-------------------------------------------
1200 JOBS LOST! Great day for you and your agenda, not the people of South Carolina!!!!
Peggy, what is the unemployment rate, what % of people get free or reduced lunch, the welfare roles, and the EBT(food stamps)stats. You claim to be saving the planet and wildlife, yet you are forcing your neighbors to struggle to survive. I hope your neighbors appreciate you pushing agendas that science proves wrong. Are you a member of ELF, or what?
August 25, 2009 at 4:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
blah_blah_blah (anonymous) says...
outrage,
what good is that, if they can't drink the water, eat the food, or breathe the air where they live?!
August 25, 2009 at 4:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Liberals_Are_Maroons (anonymous) says...
blah_blah_blah (anonymous) says...
or..... Hello, local jobs and energy produced from solar, wind, landfill methane capture, other renewables. (all of which, Santee Cooper is doing)
August 25, 2009 at 7:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
*********************************************
If you think, seriously, that solar, wind and landfill methane can power the entire state, you are completely delusional.
August 25, 2009 at 5:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
realamerican (anonymous) says...
Luckily the wingnut faction is no longer in power and we are slowly taking our country back from the incompetent policies they put in place.
It is refreshing to see the knuckledraggers gnashing their teeth just as I have predicted well before even the primaries took place.
Please just stand back and we will take care of everything. Your input is no longer needed or wanted. You had your chance and wasted it on Bush and his criminally incompetent policies. You support and cheer torture, you lie and try to instill fear to get your way. No more.
We are moving forward without you. Don't like it?
Tough.
August 25, 2009 at 7:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Liberals_Are_Maroons (anonymous) says...
realamerican (anonymous) says...
Luckily the wingnut faction is no longer in power and we are slowly taking our country back from the incompetent policies they put in place.
It is refreshing to see the knuckledraggers gnashing their teeth just as I have predicted well before even the primaries took place.
Please just stand back and we will take care of everything. Your input is no longer needed or wanted. You had your chance and wasted it on Bush and his criminally incompetent policies. You support and cheer torture, you lie and try to instill fear to get your way. No more.
We are moving forward without you. Don't like it?
Tough.
August 25, 2009 at 7:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
**********************************************
Look who's off his meds... again.
August 25, 2009 at 7:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
raptor (anonymous) says...
I am a student trying to get the American Public to complete my survey on Alternative Energy. If you are concerned or have an opinion about our energy future, please click on the link below:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm...
August 25, 2009 at 8:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pendolf (anonymous) says...
raptor
I took your survey. Would you like some input to improve this? It seems to me this is geared to give a positive enviro agenda result.
August 25, 2009 at 9:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
nighttrain (anonymous) says...
Perhaps Owl Gore can fly his often leased private jet (fact) from his TN mansion that wastes obscene amounts of non-renewable energy resources (World-class hypocrite) to our state so he can party with the Green crowd over this "victory".
Or, more constructively, a small tax could be assessed to all energy bills that would be used ONLY to promote renewable energy research studies at our Universities. The most difficult task would be finding a trustworthy entity to oversee the program. But the benefits would be boundless in many regards for the Palmetto State.
August 25, 2009 at 9:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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