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Santee Cooper seeks arbitration with co-ops in nuclear costs lawsuit

Santee Cooper and South Carolina's electric cooperatives could face off in arbitration, with the state-owned utility seeking to resolve in a closed setting the co-ops' lawsuit over cost obligations stemming from the abandonment of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant expansion.

Attorneys for Santee Cooper, legally known as the South Carolina Public Service Authority, on May 30 asked a circuit judge to move a lawsuit by the Central Electric Power Cooperative's lawsuit to arbitration. Central, which buys electricity for the state's co-ops, wants to stop the entities' payments to Santee Cooper for the failed Summer project.

Santee Cooper argues it and Central both agreed to arbitrate "any" dispute between them, which Santee says includes the co-ops' suit. Central's claims are within the scope of that arbitration agreement, the utility added.

"We have an ongoing business relationship with Central. We think the sooner we can resolve the issue, the better for both parties," Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore wrote in an email. "We fully support conducting the process in public, and that decision will be made by the arbitrators."

The co-ops oppose Santee Cooper's arbitration push, Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina spokesman Lou Green said in an email. The parties have not seen each other in arbitration for at least 25 years, he added, criticizing the process for not being a public forum.

While the legal venue is being worked out, Central has requested that the judge set aside the co-ops' payments related to V.C. Summer until the suit is resolved. The amount in question is at least $6.58 million a month, according to a motion filed May 22 by Central with the South Carolina 14th Judicial Circuit's Common Pleas Court.