Some history: Construction of the two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at V.C. Summer was halted more than eight years ago by utility company Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas (which was later taken over by Dominion Energy). The project had been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and fraud, including federal convictions of former executives. Santee Cooper’s subsequent debt was passed on to its customers.
If executed, the $2.7 billion sales agreement with Brookfield for the partially built reactors would remove the debt from customers’ utility bills. However, Brookfield has not yet finalized the agreement. At least six months of engineering and financial feasibility studies must be completed first.
Restart reasoning: During the summit, a Brookfield executive spoke publicly at length for the first time about the reactor construction restart. Regarding the company’s decision to consider investing in the construction restart, Mitch Davidson, a managing partner in Brookfield’s Renewable Power and Transition Group, said, “It’s a bit of a no-brainer for us. . . . There are parts of this project that are already there, big parts that are there—equipment is there, foundations are there. So, this seems to be the perfect opportunity for us as a start.”
Government partnership: Also noted was the partnership deal that Brookfield, Westinghouse Electric Company, and Cameco Corporation have recently signed with the U.S. government. As part of this partnership, at least $80 billion will be directed at the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors.
Private business: Peter McCoy, board chairman of Santee Cooper, emphasized that utility customers will not bear the burden of the renewed construction. “This is not going to be on the backs of rate payers,” he said. “It’s not going to be on the backs of our taxpayers in the state. . . . This is private business stepping up, with help from the federal government.”
Data centers: Davidson added comments on the electricity demands being driven by data centers, noting, “We haven’t seen load growth, like true load growth, in this country for a decade. The data centers have been the driver behind all of this. The data centers, and the size that they’re getting to today, are the genesis.”
