COLUMBIA, S.C. — Editor's note: An additional meeting that was originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday, July 9 was cancelled.
Dominion Energy customers could see an increase in their electric bill. The energy company is requesting a 14.21% rate hike from regulators at the Public Service Commission.
“We want to be able to stay here,” Kelly Tabor said. Tabor owns Good for the Sole, a local shoe store in Five Points. He says higher energy rates could negatively impact small businesses.
“It does dig into our profits, which our profit margin is very slim, compared to a lot of other industries, especially in retail, because we don't get the markup that we used to. You also have to take into account we have to pay our rent out of that. We have to pay for our employees, taxes, self sales taxes," he said.
Dominion Energy South Carolina filed an application with the state’s public service commission in March to increase its rates by approximately 14.21%. If approved, customers' monthly bills would increase by roughly $18.86.
This is not Dominion Energy's first attempt to increase its rates. In 2021, the company settled for a 1.46% rate increase, raising customers' bills by $1.81 a month.
“South Carolina has some of the highest energy bills in the country,” Jalen Brooks Knepfle said.
Brooks-Knepfle, the energy project manager with Conservation Voters of South Carolina, said the higher rates are not the only concern regarding Dominion.
“Some things we're concerned about is Dominion’s low energy efficiency performance. It's below the national average, but it's also below its own internal goal and energy efficiency is really important because it helps customers lower their bill. It also ensures that we're not wasting energy so that's an important conservation measure and it also lowers bills across the board," she said.
According to a Southern Alliance for Clean Energy report, the national average for energy efficiency performance is 0.68%, and Dominion's is 0.24%.
“Dominion is requesting to increase its profits and South Carolina's families are already struggling at this time. It's requesting to increase its return on equity from 9.5% to 10.6%," Brooks-Knepfle said.
In a statement to News19, Dominion Energy said:
"As a responsible energy company with rates lower than the national average, we must invest money and recover the rising costs needed to keep our plants running, our system reliable and our grid secure – all while doing our part to help make South Carolina a place where people want to live and work."
The Public Service Commission is holding a public hearing about how the rate increase will impact customers on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 6 p.m. in Charleston (Lonnie Hamilton III Public Services Building, 4045 Bridgeview Drive, North Charleston). Another one will be on July 8 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. (PSC, 101 Executive Center Drive, Columbia). A meeting that was scheduled for July 9 was cancelled. Consumers can fill out a letter of protest on the PSC’s website or attend public hearings to testify in the case and voice their concerns.
“For those people that are homeowners and pay for their electric and whatnot, it's going to be less money for them and less money that they'll be able to spend within the community as well. It's not only going to hit us store owners, because we're gonna have to pay more, but also it's going to hit are the consumers our customers,” Tabor said.