Santee Cooper Board Approves Purchase of Natural Gas Combined Cycle Plant

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 21, 2023

The Santee Cooper Board of Directors on April 21 approved the purchase of Cherokee County Cogeneration Partners LLC, a natural gas combined cycle power plant in Gaffney, S.C.

The planned $17 million purchase also requires approval by the South Carolina Public Service Commission and the legislative Joint Bond Review Committee. 

The 98-megawatt Cherokee plant will help Santee Cooper reliably meet increased customer demand caused by new and expanded industries in the state and a fast-growing residential and commercial base in areas served by Santee Cooper, its municipal wholesale customers and the state’s electric cooperatives, Santee Cooper said. 

“We need a quick power supply for new industry and new people, and that’s a great problem to have,” said President and CEO Jimmy Staton. “Cherokee offers an existing, in-state solution that matches well with our generating portfolio and will help provide the reliable, affordable power our customers have come to expect.” 

Cherokee was built in 1998 and sold to LS Power in 2011. Santee Cooper began taking the Cherokee output under a purchased power agreement in early 2022.

Owning the actual unit will provide additional reliability to Santee Cooper’s customers. The purchase has been endorsed by Santee Cooper’s largest customer, Central Electric Power Cooperative, which intends to seek formal support from its board in May. 

The Cherokee purchase helps address a near-term need for additional power, Santee Cooper noted.

Santee Cooper, the state-owned public power utility in South Carolina, is continuing its comprehensive, long-term resource planning process and intends to submit its proposed Integrated Resource Plan to the PSC on May 15. That process is focused on planning for generating resources beginning later this decade.