Dominion Energy Has Lost $1.7 Billion in Customers’ Money on Unreliable Coal Plants That Hardly Ever Run

Dominion Energy has lost $1.7 billion in customer money since 2012 by propping up outdated, polluting coal plants that are so unreliable they provide power to South Carolina homes and businesses less than half the time.

Dominion Energy’s Wateree, Williams, and Cope coal-burning power plants cost far more to run than they generate in revenues, and most of the units have been shut down repeatedly in recent years for costly repairs and emergencies, according to Sierra Club expert analysis. 

Wateree Unit 1’s outages added up to 52 percent of its hours in 2019, and its Unit 2 outages were 56 percent of its hours in 2019. In fact, Wateree Unit 2 has been shut down since January 2020 and isn’t expected to be online again until 2022. Williams was down 38 percent of the time in 2018 and 43 percent in 2019, and Cope’s outage rate has been 50 percent so far in 2020.

Customers have been forced to foot the massive bill for dilapidated power plants that can’t reliably keep their lights on, yet Dominion Energy South Carolina is brazenly asking state regulators to reward its bad business practices and increase rates 7.7 percent, or an additional $9.68 per month for its residential customers. 

The proposed increase would make an average bill about $132 each month—even though South Carolinians already struggle with some of the highest electric bills in the country, while also trying to make ends meet in a global pandemic that has devastated public health and the economy. 

This is exacerbated by customers already being forced to pay for the $9 billion V.C. Summer debacle, a never-finished attempt to add two reactors to the nuclear plant. Dominion Energy South Carolina customers have already paid about $2 billion in higher power bills for the failed project—thanks to nine rate hikes when the since-abandoned reactors were still under construction. Dominion is now asking customers to pay for $345 million in transmission upgrades that were intended solely for V.C. Summer.

The South Carolina Public Service Commission has a hearing scheduled for Dominion’s rate hike request on January 5. Commissioners will issue their decision on February 15. If they approve it, the increase would start in March and would let Dominion collect roughly $178 million more each year from all of its residential, commercial, and industrial electric customers, for a total cost of $2.3 billion per year.

But the cost of keeping these uneconomic, unreliable coal plants online is unjust and unreasonable, and Dominion’s customers shouldn't have to pay it.

Instead, commissioners should:

• Disallow $411 million in past spending on capital projects incurred and requested in this rate case proceeding for the Wateree, Williams, and Cope coal plants.

• Cap future capital expenditures intended to prolong the use of the Williams, Wateree, and Cope coal units, at least until Dominion conducts an analysis showing whether or not continuing to operate each of its existing coal-fired units is the least expensive alternative compared to other supply-side and demand-side resource options.

• Require Dominion to seek approval of any expenditure that exceeds that cap before it can be recovered from ratepayers.

South Carolina families shouldn’t be burdened by the costs to keep dirty, money-wasting plants running, especially when clean energy resources like solar and wind, paired with energy efficiency, are affordable, safer, and more reliable. 

It’s time for Dominion Energy to face the facts: Coal can’t compete. We’ve known for decades that coal poisons our air and water, damages our health, and disrupts our climate. And now we know it’s also burdening South Carolinans with unnecessary, unjust, and avoidable costs.