Santee Cooper's governing board gathers at 8 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30, in Conway to decide whether residential customers across Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties will pay more for electricity starting next year. The proposal on the table would raise residential rates by 4.7% beginning Feb. 1, 2027, followed by another 4.6% increase on Feb. 1, 2028 — a two-step hike the utility says is needed to keep pace with surging demand and aging infrastructure.
What's Actually on the Table
The vote, scheduled for Atheneum Hall at Coastal Carolina University, caps months of public review, according to the Post and Courier. For a typical residential customer, the increase works out to about 20 cents a day, or $6.60 a month, according to Santee Cooper. The state-owned utility also wants to change how it calculates residential demand charges, shifting to a method — called Balanced Demand Billing — that would bill customers based on the average of their maximum hourly usage during the four highest peak periods each month, the utility notes.
Friday's vote follows a process that began months ago. Santee Cooper's board unanimously supported moving forward with the rate study process back in the spring, the utility's own materials show. Management presented its final recommended rates to the board on Sept. 29, after customers had their say: more than 300 written comments came in before the July 30 deadline, and the utility held public hearings where, per the same utility account, older and fixed-income residential users voiced concern about the financial impact.
A Longtime Resident Speaks Up
Among those who showed up to weigh in was Reuben Hyman, who has lived in Myrtle Beach since 1944. Speaking at an August hearing, Hyman said customers should be kept in mind whenever prices go up — a sentiment echoed by other attendees worried about fixed incomes absorbing yet another increase.
Santee Cooper leadership, for its part, has framed the increases as unavoidable. President and CEO Jimmy Staton has said reliable electric service is something customers are entitled to, and that demand growth and material inflation are driving up costs. Staton has also said that costs will exceed what current rates can cover, and that delaying system investments puts reliability at great risk, according to the Post and Courier's reporting.
Why the Grid Needs More Juice
The rate request isn't happening in a vacuum. Santee Cooper's proposed 2026 Integrated Resource Plan, which the board reviewed and approved submitting to the South Carolina Public Service Commission on Sept. 30, forecasts winter peak demand running 1,250 megawatts higher by 2030 and 1,375 megawatts higher by 2040 than the utility projected just three years ago, according to Santee Cooper's newsroom. To meet that growth, the plan calls for a 300-megawatt battery energy storage system as part of the Pinopolis Reliability Project. The utility is also pursuing off-grid battery storage as a cost-mitigation effort, expanding its Anderson County natural gas station, and exploring strategic partnerships with other utilities, per the Post and Courier.
Santee Cooper says the increases are simply necessary to keep up with growing demand and various system upgrades, according to Live 5 News. The utility has also added more than 17,000 retail customers over the past three years, growth that adds strain to a system already being asked to do more.
Part of a Bigger National Squeeze
Santee Cooper isn't alone in asking regulators and ratepayers for more money. Utilities nationwide requested $18.6 billion in electric and gas rate increases during just the first half of 2026, including a record $9.2 billion in the second quarter alone, according to Powerlines. Those second-quarter filings alone could affect future bills for more than 56 million U.S. utility consumers, the group reported.
If Santee Cooper's board approves the plan as proposed Friday, the new rates take effect Feb. 1, 2027, with the second phase following on Feb. 1, 2028, according to WMBF News. Whether the board approves, rejects or modifies the proposal at Friday's meeting remains to be seen.
