nuclear-news

The monthly payments continue to rise, but it’s not certain whether the customer making those payments will ever drive the car.

At least now, SCE&G’s customers have an idea how much the expansoin of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station is costing them each month. The state’s Office of Regulatory Staff, which represents the public’s interest in utility issues, this month said SCE&G’s customers are paying an average of $23.16 each billing period — or 16.1 percent of their total bill — toward building the Midlands nuclear plant

And that’s likely to increase if the state Public Service Commission approves the company’s request to boost the project’s cost by another $852 million to $14 billion — more than $4 billion higher than original cost estimates.

SCE&G is using a state law called the Base Load Review Act to finance the nuclear project near Jenkinsville.

The law allows the utility to charge its 700,000 customers for construction as the project proceeds. ……

Critics like Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the state’s Small Business Chamber of Commerce, say the act “has turned into a blank check” for SCE&G.

The utility is allowed by state regulators to take up to 10.5 percent of the construction costs as profit. And Knapp says the pay-as-you-go method is unfair because some customers now paying for the project will leave the utility’s service area before it comes online……. http://www.postandcourier.com/20160618/160619424/power-surge-cost-overruns-at-south-carolina-nuclear-plant-growing-part-of-sceg-customer-bills