This from my company news;
VC Summer Plant to Add Two More Plants
The Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSC)
has unanimously approved South Carolina Electric & Gas
Company’s (SCE&G) plans to build two new Westinghouse
AP1000s at its existing VC Summer site in the state. PSC
approval must be secured before any construction can start.
The South Carolina PSC ruling was made in the wake of
a three-week public hearing held in December 2008, and
determines that the proposal to build the plant is “prudent,”
as well as allowing the company to recover some of the
financing costs while the plant is under construction rather
than having to wait until it is in operation.
Indeed, according to the PSC directive, the new units will be
sorely needed. “The company’s [SCE&G’s] established reserve
margin target is 12% to 18% of forecasted peak demand,
and … forecast shows that the company’s reserve margin
will decline to 2% by 2016 and -3.9% by 2019, even in the
face of the current economic downturn,” it said.
SCE&G president and COO Kevin Marsh greeted the PSC
ruling as a key milestone for the project, and noted that
being able to pay financing costs while the plant is under
construction should lower the overall cost of building the
new units by about $1 billion, saving customers an estimated
$4 billion in electricity rates over the plant’s lifetime.
The new units will be jointly owned by Scana subsidiary
SCE&G and Santee Cooper, and operated by SCE&G, and
will join the existing 966 MWe unit at the site. Construction
will not be able to begin until the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) grants a combined construction and
operating licence (COL), which SCE&G estimates could be
issued in 2011. The company plans to bring the first of the
new units online in 2016, with the second in 2019.