For first time in nearly 50 years, Santee Cooper generated less power last year from coal

Mar 27 - The Post and Courier

 

For the first time in nearly 50 years, state-owned utility Santee Cooper generated less electricity from coal in 2012, according to the Moncks Corner-based company.

Not since 1966 has the utility produced more power from different sources than pollution-causing coal, utility spokeswoman Mollie Gore said.

Less than 60 percent of Santee Cooper's electricity came from the fossil fuel last year. Coal usually accounts for about 80 percent of power production, according to Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter and board Chairman O.L. Thompson in their annual report released this week.

The low-cost of natural gas, which accounted for 30 percent of the utility's power production, and the closing of four old coal-fired units in Moncks Corner and Conway at year's end attributed to the decline, they said.

Two little-used, oil-fired units in Moncks Corner are also set to be retired, with no specific date announced.

When two new 1,100-megawatt nuclear units come online in 2017 and 2018 at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, which Santee Cooper jointly owns with South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. north of Columbia, the utility can rely on additional nuclear-generated power capacity with more flexibility to respond to volatile fuel markets, they said.

Reach Warren L. Wise at 937-5524 or twitter.com/warrenlancewise.

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