(AP) -- COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's largest investor-owned utility plans to increase electric rates 2.73 percent to help pay financing costs for two nuclear reactors it plans to build.
South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. said in a news release Friday that the rate increase, set to take effect in October, will add about $3.33 to the monthly bill of a customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each month.
The increase must be approved by state utility regulators.
The Public Service Commission last year signed off on allowing SCE&G to raise rates an average of 2 percent a year through 2019 to prepay the financing costs of the $4.5 billion the company expects to spend for its portion of two nuclear reactors.
The company is building the reactors with state-owned utility Santee Cooper.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
