Santee Cooper Seeking Proposals to Acquire and Finish V.C. Summer Nuclear Station Expansion

RFP process launched; bids due May 5.

Posted January 22, 2025 | Media Contact

Responding to interest nationally in new nuclear power to help meet growing electricity needs, Santee Cooper today launched a process seeking proposals to acquire and complete, or propose alternatives, for two partially constructed generating units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, S.C.

Santee Cooper has engaged Centerview Partners LLC to conduct a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking parties interested in acquiring the project and related assets, and potentially completing one or both units or pursuing alternative uses of the assets. Responses will be due to Centerview on May 5, 2025.

"We are seeing renewed interest in nuclear energy, fueled by advanced manufacturing investments, AI-driven data center demand, and the tech industry's zero-carbon targets," said President and CEO Jimmy Staton. "Considering the long timelines required to bring new nuclear units online, Santee Cooper has a unique opportunity to explore options for Summer Units 2 and 3 and their related assets that could allow someone to generate reliable, carbon emissions-free electricity on a meaningfully shortened timeline."

Staton continued: "We appreciate the interest of state leaders in Santee Cooper moving forward with this RFP. Although Santee Cooper has no plans to own or operate those units, this process could help identify another entity with a viable alternative that would produce benefits for our customers, support economic development and provide value to the state of South Carolina."

Factors contributing to the utility's decision to launch the RFP process include:

• A need for new generating capacity, driven by rapid growth in data centers, the continued onshoring of advanced manufacturing and the retirement of fossil units.
• Significant interest nationally in repowering previously closed or canceled nuclear projects to shorten project timelines. Unit 2 was significantly progressed when the project was canceled.
• Federal support for nuclear construction including the availability of tax credits and loan guarantees.

Selected V.C. Summer project highlights include:

• Its unique position as the only site in the U.S. that could deliver 2,200 MWs of nuclear capacity on an accelerated timeline.
• Its use of the AP1000 technology also used by Southern Company for Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, which entered service in 2023 and 2024.
• Its location within the nuclear security "envelope" of the larger V.C. Summer station site, which was always intended to hold multiple units.
• Its access to ample land, water and transmission infrastructure upgrades built to accommodate output from the units.

Following years of extensive and costly delays and then bankruptcy by its contractor, Santee Cooper voted to stop construction of Units 2 and 3 in July 2017 and, with majority owner SCE&G (now Dominion Energy South Carolina), abandoned the project. SCE&G transferred its interest in the assets to Santee Cooper in 2018.