Dominion Energy's Pricey Plant: The $2.5 Billion Balloon – What We Know

Another Half-Baked Nuclear Boondoggle?

South Carolina's power grid is about to get a whole lot more expensive. Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy are moving forward with a natural gas plant in Canadys, but the price tag just doubled. We're talking a jump from the initial $2.5 billion estimate to a staggering $5 billion. That's a 100% increase in projected costs in a single year. (These are the kinds of discrepancies that make my eyebrows twitch.)

The plant, slated to replace a former coal facility, is being justified by rising energy demands, particularly from data centers. But let’s dissect this for a moment. Are these projections realistic, or are we looking at another V.C. Summer situation brewing?

The V.C. Summer nuclear project, abandoned in 2017, left ratepayers on the hook for billions with nothing to show for it. Now, we're seeing history potentially repeat itself, albeit with natural gas instead of nuclear. Senator Shane Massey's frustration is palpable, and rightly so. Customers are still paying for a ghost project while facing the prospect of footing the bill for another potentially over-budget endeavor.

The rising costs are attributed to materials, labor, and, notably, gas turbines. The price of those turbines, coupled with tariff pressures and construction contracts, is driving up the overall price. Dominion Energy is on the hook for $2.5 billion of the project, with Santee Cooper picking up the other half. A 71-mile pipeline, courtesy of Kinder Morgan at $431 million, will feed the plant. That’s a lot of pipe.

The Demand Curve: Justifying the Expense

John Brooker at Conservation Voters of South Carolina raises a critical point: is all this new energy really needed? The V.C. Summer reactors are supposedly coming back online (Brookfield is taking over), and this new gas plant will add even more capacity. Are we overbuilding, or are the utilities accurately forecasting future demand?

This is the part of the report that I find genuinely puzzling. Utilities are citing increased demand from data centers. But data centers are notoriously cagey about their actual energy consumption. They'll sign contracts promising massive usage, but actual consumption often lags behind projections. It's a bit like buying a sports car and only driving it to the grocery store once a week. The potential is there, but the actual use is far less.

Santee Cooper OK'd steps for over 4,500 megawatts of power last week. That's a substantial amount of juice. But without granular, verifiable data on actual data center energy usage, it's impossible to determine if this plant is a prudent investment or a speculative gamble. We need to see the spreadsheets, not just the press releases.

The project still needs approval from the Public Service Commission, at which point a more exact cost will be made public. But "more exact" doesn't necessarily mean "accurate." Remember, Jimmy Staton, Santee Cooper's CEO, estimated the cost at $2.3 to $2.5 billion in August 2024. That's less than a year ago. What changed so dramatically in such a short time? (Besides, you know, inflation and global supply chain woes).

The Senate passed a bill in May 2025 allowing Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy to collaborate on this project. That collaboration now carries a $5 billion price tag. Is this a partnership, or a pre-arranged fleecing of the South Carolina ratepayer?

Another Ratepayer Bailout Incoming?

The data suggests a troubling pattern. A history of failed projects (V.C. Summer), a lack of transparency regarding actual energy demand, and a rapidly escalating price tag. All of this points to a high probability of ratepayers being forced to swallow another bitter pill. The utilities are betting big on future demand, but if that bet doesn't pay off, it's the consumers who will be left holding the bag. And that bag, ladies and gentlemen, is now worth $5 billion.