A better-balanced South Carolina Energy Security Act
The omnibus energy bill H.3309 was recently passed by the S.C. House of Representatives and is currently under consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Conservation League is working to encourage senators to ensure the bill is as balanced as possible, with amendments that could help unlock the valuable cost-saving potential of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Please consider adding your voice and letting your senator know that you support clean energy by filling out our form letter. This letter will be sent straight to your legislator.
As currently written, we are concerned the bill will increase ratepayers’ risk of paying higher electric bills than necessary. It will also delay the growth in clean energy resources that is needed to support economic development in our state.
The General Assembly has an opportunity to pass a balanced omnibus energy bill that provides for a reliable, affordable, “all-of-the-above” supply of electricity that can match the pace of growing demand from large customers. It is essential to protect everyday customers from subsidizing the energy needs of wealthy corporations.
Getting it right is critical. With the addition of some reasonable provisions to protect ratepayers and unlock the cost-saving potential of clean energy, H.3309 could help unleash our state’s full potential to secure a prosperous energy future for years to come.
Provisions that would do so include:
Energy Resource Planning Reforms
- Require best practices in electric load forecasting to ensure demand forecasts are as reliable as possible. This prevents overbuilding or underbuilding new generating capacity.
- Survey large new customers’ clean energy needs and including constraints in resource modeling to ensure they are met.
Economic Development Rates and Large Customer Rate Design Reforms
- Require large new customers to pay their fair share and protect other ratepayers from inappropriate cost-shifting.
- Ensure economic benefits outweigh the costs of offering discounted rates to large energy users.
Energy Efficiency Savings Targets and Third-Party Administrator (TPA)
- The Office of Regulatory Staff should study how to implement a TPA for utility rate-funded energy efficiency programs, not whether to do so.
- A TPA would resolve a fundamental misalignment of incentives between ratepayers and utilities that has prevented valuable efficiency gains.
Business Access to Clean Energy
- Many large energy users, including data center developers, have made bold commitments to secure clean energy, and they need more options to come here.
- Energy Imbalance Market
- Wholesale electricity market competition would unlock valuable savings for ratepayers, enhance reliability, and provide a transparent mechanism to maximize market efficiencies and ensure we are getting the energy we need at the lowest cost available.
- Limited Retail Choice for New Large Customers
- Limiting retail choice to new customers would avoid stranded asset risks.
Fuel-Cost Sharing
- Power plant fuel costs are currently passed 100% to ratepayers.
- Utilities should be incentivized to strive to minimize power plant fuel costs, which can include financial hedging and new resource planning considerations.
Proactive Transmission Planning
- More proactive transmission planning could unlock massive savings for customers and improve grid resilience, while helping to provide the transmission needed for a secure energy future.
- Utilities should evaluate multiple benefits and iterate between transmission modeling and generating resource modeling to minimize costs.
We are hopeful that a balanced bill will unlock our state’s potential to be a leader in low-cost clean energy, while helping to protect ratepayers and the environment.