By Anne Tyler
South Carolina is at a critical crossroads next month to set the direction for abundant and affordable energy generation in our state. The decision made soon will define our economic strength and environmental health for decades.
The options rest with state regulators at the Public Service Commission (PSC) as they decide next month whether to accept or reject the long-term energy plan of electricity provider Dominion Energy South Carolina.
There are two clear paths: The first is to build a cleaner, cheaper, abundant, and more reliable electricity future. The second is to double down on the past 100 years of addiction to fossil fuels by expanding reliance on out-of-state fuels for decades to come.
We have been closely following the testimony and rebuttals submitted this year on Dominion’s energy plan. The full testimony and hearings have clearly shown that Dominion is failing to embrace new cost-saving technology and instead over-investing in old energy sources.
Power industry expert witnesses noted that, already, more than 40 percent of Dominion’s energy comes from natural gas and less than 10 percent from solar energy. By arbitrarily assuming that solar and other clean technologies cannot grow quickly, Dominion produced a plan that will make its ratepayers 60 percent dependent on natural gas for power for decades to come. This plan is financially very risky because, unlike renewable energy, the price of natural gas constantly fluctuates.
A further implication of Dominion’s plan is that it will require major gas pipeline upgrades to bring this fossil fuel into the state in much greater amounts. Unfortunately, no one knows yet how much it will cost for these natural gas pipelines. It is a cost and timetable that is unknown and excluded from the analysis.
So, what is the alternative to Dominion’s plan?
Expert witnesses in the PSC hearings removed Dominion’s artificial limits on clean energy growth and developed an alternative to Dominion’s plan. The alternative plan maintains Dominion’s natural gas fleet of power plants as a backup for renewable energy, while expanding solar, batteries, and energy management solutions to replace aging coal plants.
Even better, the expert witnesses demonstrated that the alternative plan would be cheaper than Dominion’s gas-centric plan while still meeting rigorous, industry-standard reliability requirements. It also removes the risks associated with the volatility of natural gas availability and costs.
Beyond the economic benefits of the alternative energy plans presented to the PSC and Dominion, the clean energy plan also reduces carbon emissions by 50% over Dominion’s plan.
Natural gas, which is comprised mostly of methane, isn’t clean. Burning natural gas emits large quantities of CO2. That is why the federal government has already proposed a rule that forces new baseload gas-fired power plants to run only half the time. As one ratepayer suggested during the public hearing, this makes building more natural gas power plants today as risky as investing in a new lead paint factory.
Dozens of lawsuits being filed and won across the US against fossil fuel companies, utilities, and even states themselves add even more to the financial and legal risk.
By contrast, solar and batteries are simply the cheapest, most scalable, and most flexible technical solutions that provide the most reliable and resilient electricity production today. These clean technologies are changing the economics of electricity production.
Best of all, these are not “future miracles” we need to arrive one day on the utilities’ doorsteps. They are currently available and widely deployed. For this reason, in 2022 for the first time in history, more solar was added to energy capacity globally than coal or natural gas.
So, what happens next?
It is now up to the PSC to decide whether to accept or reject Dominion’s plan, or compel Dominion to follow the alternative clean energy plan presented by the expert witnesses. According to statute, the PSC must decide before Thanksgiving.
The importance of their decision cannot be over-stated. We don’t have to look back far to recall how the failed nuclear power plant project (VC Summer) was abandoned in 2017 after 10 years of attempting to construct a nuclear plant that would never open. The PSC authorized Dominion to then bill its ratepayers $4.5B to recover these costs over 20 years. We are still paying for this debacle in our monthly bills today.
The PSC now knows that the alternative plan, which maximizes deploying solar and battery storage (and energy management systems), will be cheaper, cleaner, more abundant, and more reliable than the plan Dominion is asking the PSC to approve.
Knowing these facts, it would be a moral, intellectual, and fiduciary dereliction of duty for the PSC to approve Dominion’s plan.
The PSC hearings are closed now. But our state legislators should compel the PSC to take the right path at this critical energy crossroads for SC.
PSC Commissioners should know, before the November deadline, that state legislators, including the Public Utility Regulatory Committee (PURC), support the cheapest, least-polluting, most reliable electricity plan and not another risky boondoggle that will leave ratepayers on the hook for major natural gas price swings for decades to come.
Please contact the SC state legislators listed below now, and ask them to oppose Dominion’s energy plan and support the alternative reliable clean energy plan.
Public Utility Regulatory Committee (PURC) Members
Contact: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/email.php?chamber=B
Members
– Sen. Thomas C. Alexander (Chairman), 803-212-6220
– Sen. C Bradley Hutto, 803-212-6140
– Sen. Luke Rankin, Sr., 803-212-6610
– Rep. William Sandifer, III (Vice Chairman), 803-734-3015
– Rep. Joseph H Jefferson, Jr., 803-734-3015
– Representative John Taliaferro West (“Jay”), 803-212-6954
Jurisdiction Contacts
– Sen. Tom Davis, 803-212-6080
– Sen. George E. “Chip” Campsen, III, 803-212-6340
– Rep. Shannon S. Erickson, 803-734-3053
Anne Tyler worked 40 years in business and technology strategy and solutions, focusing on new technology to drive economic innovation, and was a consultant in the regulated utilities industry in North America for many years. Anne is a member in the Beaufort chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby. She and her husband, Wayne, have lived on Lady’s Island for more than 6 years.
