Powering a Reliable and Sustainable Future
2024 Rate Study: New Rates Approved
On Dec. 9, 2024, the Santee Cooper Board of Directors approved new base rates for retail customers, offering new flexibility for customers to control their monthly bills. The new rates will affect bills rendered on and after April 1, 2025, and mark the first increase in base rates since 2017. The approval comes after a months-long public input process that included significant customer feedback.
- We need to invest in the electric system to maintain the high system reliability you expect and deserve and to comply with new regulations related to the environment, grid operations and security.
- Inflation has outgrown our ability to manage it, and revenues from current rates will not cover our expenses in 2025. Our rates have been flat since 2017, but inflation has increased 25% in that time. We have cut budgets ($100 million total), refinanced debt (saving customers $765 million over time), strategically reduced our headcount, and taken other steps to address rising prices.
2025 Rate Adjustment
Santee Cooper's new rates will impact residential, commercial, industrial, solar and lighting customers. The new rates will affect bills rendered on and after April 1, 2025, which means customers who receive bills earlier in the month and want to better control their bill will need to modify energy usage times beginning in March. A detailed explanation of the new rates is available here.
Customer Impacts
Click on your customer class below to learn more about Santee Cooper's new rates and how they could impact you.
Documents and Information
Board Approves Review of Proposed Rates Press Release – June 10, 2024
Management’s Rate Recommendation Presentation to Board – June 10, 2024
Rate Study Report – June 10, 2024
2024 Rate Study Supplemental Report – June 10, 2024
Rate Study Board Approval Press Release – June 20, 2023
Rate Study Presentation to the Board – June 20, 2023
Customers can request information from Santee Cooper here.
Public information provided to the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff is available here.
Presentation to the Board Outlining Rate Study Modifications - Nov. 7, 2024
2024 Rate Study Addendum Report on Public Comments - November 2024
Presentation to the Board Outlining Rate Study Final Rates - Dec. 9, 2024
Approved Rate Schedules Effective for Bills Rendered On or After April 1, 2025
Terms and Conditions of Retail Electric Service, Effective April 1, 2025
Frequently Asked Questions
Santee Cooper has typically maintained rates that have been lower than the other large utilities in South Carolina, and we intend to stay that way. In fact, in 2023, the average bill for a typical residential customer of the state's three, large investor-owned utilities was 32% higher than Santee Cooper's average residential bill.
Inflation is a major reason that we’ve now reached the point where our current rates won’t support the investments we need to make to continue providing reliability that is among the best in the country and to comply with new regulations related to the environment, grid operations and security.
Santee Cooper already has employed a number of cost-saving measures. For example, in 2022 alone, we achieved budget reductions of $30 million in non-fuel O&M and $70 million in capital, and we refinanced more than $2 billion in debt, which took advantage of low interest rates and saved customers around $765 million.
To learn more about how your rate is changing, click on your rate class below.
ResidentialCommercialIndustrialSolarLighting
Electricity is flowing constantly to supply power to our homes and businesses. The demand for this electricity is defined by how much is being used at any given time. The more electricity people are using at the same moment, the higher the demand. Learn more on our blog and by viewing our video.
It is our job at Santee Cooper to make sure we always generate enough electricity to supply all our customers, no matter how many appliances or heating/cooling systems are being used at one time. We must be able to generate enough power whenever it’s needed – regardless of the demand.
Watch VideoTo learn more about your demand, click on your rate class below.
ResidentialCommercialIndustrialSolarLightingTo learn more about how the proposed rates will impact your bill, click on your rate class below.
ResidentialCommercialIndustrialSolarLightingTo learn more about how you can reduce your bills, click on your rate class below.
ResidentialCommercialIndustrialSolarLightingNew rates will go into effect on April 1, 2025.
This is the first time Santee Cooper has increased rates since April of 2017. Our previous rates would not support the investments we need to make to modernize the system and continue providing reliability that is among the best in the country.
Santee Cooper is a not-for-profit public power utility owned by the State of South Carolina and does not have shareholders.