Helping Make Electricity Affordable

Santee Cooper is committed to making electricity affordable for all its customers. It teamed up with The Sustainability Institute in 2024 to bring energy efficiency workshops to the area and to identify homes that need energy upgrades. Santee Cooper is continuing these efforts with a similar program of its own, called Power Partners, which launched on April 2, 2025.

As of March 2025, The Sustainability Institute and Santee Cooper held 14 energy efficiency workshops around the Santee Cooper service territory, reaching about 170 people. Fifty homes received weatherization and other upgrades to help their power bills become more affordable. About 100 people received a Home Energy Savings kit with weatherization products, LEDs and water savers.

These measures not only help our customers save money. It also saves power, which supports sustainability and our commitment to reliability for our customers. Efficiency improvement projects help us limit system upgrades and prolong building new generation.

With the majority of goals set for The Sustainability Institute having been met, TSI will continue its own Neighborhood Weatherization program over the next months. Santee Cooper plans to continue to support these efforts while initializing its own Power Partners program.

Power Partners will include workshops as well as contractors canvassing neighborhoods to find the homes that need the most help. Power Partners will help reduce barriers to energy efficiency in vulnerable neighborhoods through workshops, energy assessments and free home improvements.

“Santee Cooper is committed to ensuring all of our customers have access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy,” said Vicky Budreau, Chief Customer Officer. “By offering a program that assists with energy-efficiency upgrades and customer education on energy efficiency, we hope to help these customers reduce their energy expenses and improve their overall quality of life.”

Through the Power Partners program, a qualified technician will perform a home energy assessment for eligible residential customers. The technician will identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency, including LED lighting, weather stripping or faucet aerators, and provide those measures for free. Power Partners also provides energy education to help households adopt long-term energy-saving habits. By making energy-efficiency improvements more accessible, the program helps reduce utility costs while promoting a sustainable, energy-conscious community.

By improving energy efficiency, Power Partners can help lower overall energy consumption and reduce strain on infrastructure, benefiting all customers. This initiative helps build a more resilient, sustainable energy system.