PSC to hold first of 3 hearings on Sept. 24

The S.C. Public Service Commission is holding the first of three public hearings concerning a permanent decision on rate relief for S.C. Electric & Gas customers on Sept. 24.

The hearing will take place at the Saluda Building at Synergy Business Park at 101 Executive Center Drive in Columbia at 6 p.m. Members of the public must sign in to speak and will be allowed a maximum of three minutes.

The PSC is set to decide rate relief questions related to the abandoned nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer power station in December. In June, the commission and the S.C. General Assembly enacted legislation giving SCE&G customers a temporary 15% reduction in their electric bills.

SCE&G parent company SCANA asked state regulators for and received nine rate increases during the decade-long construction of the reactors, abandoned last July after a series of rising costs and mounting delays.

Public hearings will also be held Oct. 8 at the Aiken County Government Center and on Oct. 15 at the Lonnie Hamilton III Public Services Building in North Charleston. All hearings begin at 6 p.m.

The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is urging small business owners to make their voices heard at the hearings.

“The decision that the PSC will make on the issue of who pays for the abandoned nuclear project will affect rates for decades to come,” Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the chamber, said in a news release. “Our position is that SCE&G rates should be rolled back by 18 percent and the $2 billion the customers have already paid should be clawed back.”