The South Carolina Public Service Authority has significantly narrowed its list of candidates to take over two partially constructed nuclear reactor units at its V.C. Summer plant.
The state-owned utility, known as Santee Cooper, launched a request for proposals process in January to gauge interest from entities in acquiring and completing the two unfinished units. Proposals submitted came from construction, financial, utility and technology companies around the world, the utility said in May.
Fourteen entities submitted proposals to determine the future of Summer units 2 and 3. The utility, with Centerview Partners LLC and J.P. Morgan, has completed an assessment of those responses. The assessment "identified fewer than five entities that have been invited to continue a second phase of review," Santee Cooper spokesperson Nicole Aiello told Platts, which is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
The entities involved in phase two of the process will conduct additional due diligence and submit final proposals for Santee Cooper to evaluate. The utility will choose a path forward for the units that will benefit customers and South Carolina, Aiello said.
Santee Cooper declined to provide any additional details about the entities progressing to phase two.
Santee Cooper expects to complete the process by the end of 2025. The utility does not intend to own or operate the units.
Duke Energy Corp., which operates a nuclear fleet in the Carolinas, was approached about the Summer project but declined, CFO Brian Savoy told Platts in May.
Load growth
As electricity load projections continue to grow across the US, interest in nuclear has also increased, Santee Cooper President and CEO Jimmy Staton said in January. Given the long timelines associated with new nuclear builds, Staton said on Jan. 22 that the Summer units present an opportunity for interested parties "to generate reliable, carbon emissions-free electricity on a meaningfully shortened timeline."
Santee Cooper also said part of its decision to seek proposals for the units included additional federal support for nuclear construction, including tax credits and loan guarantees.
Since then, US President Donald Trump has signed executive orders aimed at boosting the nuclear energy industry, including a goal to construct 10 new large reactors by 2030, as part of an effort to increase US nuclear generation from about 100 GW today to 400 GW by 2050.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 30 renewed the operating license for unit 1 of the Summer plant for the second time, extending it for another 20 years to Aug. 6, 2062.
Members of the South Carolina Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council in October 2024 first called for a study into restarting construction on the V.C. Summer expansion. Gov. Henry McMaster has also advocated for completion of the project.
The two abandoned AP1000 units are identical to those operating at Southern Co.'s Vogtle Nuclear Plant, officials said previously. V.C. Summer unit 2 is about 48% complete and unit 3 is "significantly less than that," making unit 2 the more attractive and likely candidate for renewed construction, according to Jim Little. Little is an advisory council member who previously worked at Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, the primary contractor on the unfinished Summer expansion and the two Vogtle units that entered service in 2023 and 2024.
Santee Cooper and project partner South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., a former subsidiary of SCANA Corp., stopped construction on the V.C. Summer expansion in July 2017. The project was reeling from billions of dollars in cost overruns months after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy. At the time the project was abandoned, about $9 billion had been spent.
Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc. acquired SCANA after the project was shut down, and Dominion and Santee Cooper customers were saddled with the cost of the failed expansion effort. The two additional planned units are expected to generate 1,117 MW apiece.
Santee Cooper had been marketing equipment for units 2 and 3 for several years through Westinghouse for nuclear-specific equipment and a third party for other components. The utility has sold more than $100 million in equipment, including reactor coolant pumps. Many of those parts have not been delivered yet, however.
About 80% to 90% of the hard parts required to complete both reactors are still in inventory, Santee Cooper's Steve Nance said during a March 31 Nuclear Advisory Council meeting.
"These parts are earmarked for Ukraine, which, I don't need to tell you, is quite sensitive in terms of how that may ever actually go to fruition or not," said Nance, Santee Cooper's nuclear development director. Commercial commitments for those parts may also expire if they are not withdrawn by a set date, though Nance did not detail the timeline.
