More than 2 million South Carolinians receive power from electric cooperatives located in all 46 counties. Because co-ops tend to provide power to largely rural areas, there is a tendency to believe they follow, rather than lead the way, in determining the future of energy — energy policy, how power is consumed, or new technologies. It’s a false assumption. Industry leaders in S.C. are progressive and diligent in their search for greater efficiencies.
Every electric cooperative in South Carolina purchases its electricity from Santee Cooper, the state-owned electric and water utility. Laura Varn, Santee Cooper’s vice president of corporate communications, says the organization’s main source of producing energy is coal, which accounts for 80 percent of its output. “Nuclear accounts for 9 percent, natural gas is eight percent, and the rest is a hodge-podge,” she says.
But the company is forward-thinking. “We’ve just opened our sixth biomass production facility, the Berkley County Green Power Station,” Varn says. As with the plants in Anderson, Georgetown, Horry, Lee and Richland counties, the biomass is methane created by the breakdown of refuse. “Garbage produces methane, which is 21 percent more harmful that carbon dioxide. The landfills have to find a way to dispose of it. We use it to produce electricity and distribute the electricity to our customers.” The effort is effective enough to produce 25 megawatts sufficient to power 12,500 homes.
Co-ops are also investing in other technologies to better serve their members. “We have two primary concerns about the future as to the impact of energy policy on our members: the affordability of electricity and the availability of electricity,” says Terry Ballenger of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, which serves the Upstate. “New metering technology has positioned Blue Ridge to implement advantageous functions such as load control, remote reconnecting and disconnecting of service, real-time information about members’ energy-use patterns, and the like,” he says.
In order for an energy source to be a viable alternative for power production, it must be sustainable and reliable. Because of EPA regulations, it also has to be environmentally friendly, “It’s tough to get all three,” says Varn. While Santee Cooper, as part of its renewable energy program, just dedicated its first wind turbine at North Myrtle Beach’s Oceanfront Park, wind is unreliable further inland. “Wind mapping told us that as a land-based source, it’s not usable,” Varn says.
Because of production expenses, the upfront costs of solar power render it even less viable. It can take up to 20 years for a homeowner to recoup a solar investment. Reliability is also a consideration, says Eddie Richardson of Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative. If the sun’s not shining, solar panels can’t produce electricity.
Nuclear power remains an option, and indeed South Carolina is somewhat of a center of nuclear expertise, providing 11 percent of the nation’s nuclear power. Closer to home, it accounts for 51 percent of the state’s electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Safe and reliable, nuclear power provides electricity to half the homes and businesses in South Carolina, without producing any air pollution or greenhouse-gas emissions, and new “fast reactors” use a more stable form of uranium. The V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville intends to build up to two new reactors — the first one, if all goes according to plan — coming on line in 2019.
Industry leaders are also examining future technology of hydroelectric power. Rather than using rivers and dams, new technology captures ocean tidal flow using buoys with small turbines. With the Gulf Stream off the S.C. coast, it’s a viable option. It’s non polluting and sustainable, but also too new to gauge its usefulness. “Wave research is different in the northwest (U.S.) than here,” says Mike Couick, president and CEO of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, a statewide trade association for the co-ops. “It’s a long way to bring the energy back to shore. You would have to lay cable and that raises some environmental concerns. All of this will be solved, but our challenge is what do we do right now? How do we find ways to keep the light bill low?”
The answer to that is multifaceted, Couick says, but relies mainly on what he calls Demand Side Management. “Little things like changing old bulbs out for CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs truly work. If people would commit 1 percent of their resources to the top ten strategies for reducing energy use, we would see a tremendous difference.” Those strategies include things like replacing old, inefficient heating and air units and appliances or adding insulation, anything that helps “seal the envelope,” Couick says.
Santee Cooper has begun a 10-year “Reduce the Use South Carolina” campaign, aimed at substantially reducing the use of electricity and improving energy efficiency among its 163,000 direct serve residential and commercial customers through rebates and new initiatives. “In the first few years our goal is to reduce usage by enough kilowatt hours required to power 3,700 homes per year,” Varn says. The utility’s goal is to generate 40 percent of its energy from non-greenhouse gas emitting resources, biomass fuels, conservation and energy efficiency by 2020. “In a period of unprecedented change, we find that we have sound policies that allow us to do what we do best,” says Varn.