Public Service Commission of South Carolina Approves SCE&G Rate Adjustment Under Base Load Review Act
Summary
CAYCE, S.C., Oct. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSC) approved an increase of $64,428,000, or approximately 2.66 percent, to the retail electric rates of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation (NYSE: SCG). "By passing lower fuel costs from our efforts to ensure a balanced and diversified fuel mix, residential customers will receive lower bills for similar usage at the end of 2016 than they received at the end of 2015," said SCE&Gs Chief Operating Officer, Steve Byrne. SCE&G and Santee Cooper, a state-owned electric and water utility in South Carolina, are working to build two 1,117-megawatt nuclear electric-generating units at the site of the V.C. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning key earnings drivers, customer growth, environmental regulations and expenditures, leverage ratio, projections for pension fund contributions, financing activities, access to sources of capital, impacts of the adoption of new accounting rules and estimated construction and other expenditures. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) the information is of a preliminary nature and may be subject to further and/or continuing review and adjustment; (2) legislative and regulatory actions, particularly changes in electric and gas services, rate regulation, regulations governing electric grid reliability and pipeline integrity, environmental regulations, and actions affecting the construction of new nuclear units; (3) current and future litigation; (4) changes in the economy, especially in areas served by subsidiaries of SCANA; (5) the impact of competition from other energy suppliers, including competition from alternate fuels in industrial markets; (6) the impact of conservation and demand side management efforts and/or technological advances on customer usage; (7) the loss of sales to distributed generation, such as solar photovoltaic systems; (8) growth opportunities for SCANAs regulated and other subsidiaries; (9) the results of short- and long-term financing efforts, including prospects for obtaining access to capital markets and other sources of liquidity; (10) the effects of weather, especially in areas where the generation and transmission facilities of SCANA and its subsidiaries (the Company) are located and in areas served by SCANAs subsidiaries; (11) changes in SCANAs or its subsidiaries accounting rules and accounting policies; (12) payment and performance by counterparties and customers as contracted and when due; (13) the results of efforts to license, site, construct and finance facilities for electric generation and transmission, including nuclear generating facilities; (14) the results of efforts to operate the Companys electric and gas systems and assets in accordance with acceptable performance standards, including the impact of additional distributed generation and nuclear generation; (15) maintaining creditworthy joint owners for SCE&Gs new nuclear generation project; (16) the ability of suppliers, both domestic and international, to timely provide the labor, secure processes, components, parts, tools, equipment and other supplies needed, at agreed upon quality and prices, for our construction program, operations and maintenance; (17) the results of efforts to ensure the physical and cyber security of key assets and processes; (18) the availability of fuels such as coal, natural gas and enriched uranium used to produce electricity; the availability of purchased power and natural gas for distribution; the level and volatility of future market prices for such fuels and purchased power; and the ability to recover the costs for such fuels and purchased power; (19) the availability of skilled, licensed, and experienced human resources to properly manage, operate, and grow the Companys businesses; (20) labor disputes; (21) performance of SCANAs pension plan assets; (22) changes in tax laws and realization of tax benefits and credits, including production tax credits for new nuclear units; (23) inflation or deflation; (24) compliance with regulations; (25) natural disasters and man-made mishaps that directly affect our operations or the regulations governing them; and (26) the other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the reports filed by SCANA or SCE&G with the SEC.