Columbia, SC (WLTX) - An agreement has been reached with SCANA and SCE&G and its customers regarding a plan to get them money back over the failed construction project at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station.
Terms of the deal were announced Saturday.
Customers filed the class action lawsuit against SCANA and SCE&G on behalf of themselves and former SCE&G customers after they were forced to pay for the abandoned construction of two new reactors at the VC Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County. Over $2 billion had been spent on the effort before SCE&G and Santee Cooper walked away in the summer of 2017.
Although they deny the allegations made in the lawsuit, SCANA and SCE&G came to a resolution of the customers' claims and arguments regarding the Base Load Review Act, which allowed companies to charge customers each month for the project before it was constructed.
This agreement comes in the form of a Common Benefit Fund. Here are the terms of the deal:
- $2 billion in future rate relief over a pending period of time. How long that period of time will be is being determined at a hearing in front of the Public Service Commission that's been going on for a month.
- a cash payment of $115 million — which includes the full value of the SCANA trust created in January of 2018
- The transfer of SCE&G owned real estate or sale proceeds from the sale of real properties. These properties include the Ramsey Grove Plantation; original Charleston Gas & Light Building in Charleston and some Otarre properties in Cayce.
If eligible, affected SCE&G customers — both current and former — will receive compensation through a bill credit or payment. Distribution of the money, however, still needs final approval from a judge and wouldn't happen until the pending deal to merge SCANA and Dominiion Energy is complete.
With approval of this settlement comes the dismissal of the lawsuit, along with the resolution of SCE&G ratepayers claims.
“At all times, our goal has been to look out for the ratepayer and see that justice is done. We believe that this settlement, which encompasses over $2 billion in benefits, is the largest of its kind in the history of South Carolina," said Attorney General Alan Wilson. "The settlement resolves the injury that SCE&G customers suffered under the Base Load Review Act by refunding revised rates previously collected. We also required that the entirety of the SCANA rabbi trust, which had a number of financial benefits for senior managers of SCE&G, be made available for the payment of obligations of the company.”