Santee Cooper pays off $360M in bond debt

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Santee Cooper has paid off $360 million in bond debt ahead of a 2020 legislative session in which S.C. lawmakers are slated to debate the future of the state-owned utility.

The transaction authorized payment of certain bonds issued in 2009 through 2013, 2015 and 2016, according to a news release from Santee Cooper. The payment cuts into the utility’s $8 billion in debt, half of which is related to the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project.

Last month, Santee Cooper outlined a business plan to pay off its nuclear debt by $925 million in the next two years without raising rates while increasing its solar capacity by 500%. The utility also plans to introduce large-scale battery storage, increase its natural gas production and close four coal-fired generating units in the next eight years.

“Santee Cooper’s customers will benefit by our using debt reduction funds to retire part of our debt now, which produces a better result through long-term savings,” Mark Bonsall, Santee Cooper president and CEO, said in Monday’s release. “This transaction enhances the value of Santee Cooper and is done with permission of the S.C. Department of Administration.”

The S.C. Department of Administration is the state agency handling bids to buy Santee Cooper, being shopped by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster to private suitors. Charlotte-based Duke Energy, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Greenville investment firm Pacolet Milliken and the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina have submitted bids.

A sale would require the approval of the S.C. General Assembly.

Santee Cooper owned 45% of a project to build twin nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear power station in Fairfield County. The project, co-owned by Dominion Energy subsidiary S.C. Electric & Gas, was abandoned in July 2017 in the face of rising costs, mounting delays and contractor Westinghouse’s bankruptcy declaration.