Santee Cooper’s board of directors voted Oct. 30 to raise residential electric rates 4.7% in 2027 and 4.6% in 2028. The utility has put the cost for a typical home at about $6.60 a month, or roughly 20 cents a day, according to Live 5 News in Charleston. The new rates apply to bills rendered on or after Feb. 1, 2027.
Santee Cooper, a South Carolina utility, says the increases average 3.3% in 2027 and 3.1% in 2028 across all customer classes, according to its rate study page. Residential customers carry the larger share: their base rates rise faster than the commercial class, which gets 2.9% in each year. Customers who want a number for their own home can pick their customer class under “Customer Impacts” on the utility’s rate page.
Together the two steps add up to 9.3% on residential base rates over two years, the utility’s management rate recommendation report shows. The board approved that package after a public comment period that ran through Aug. 31.
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What $6.60 a month adds up to
The $6.60 figure is for a typical residential customer in 2027, according to ABC News 4’s report on the vote, which says a similar increase is expected in 2028. Over a full year, $6.60 a month comes to about $79. A household that uses more electricity than a typical home will pay more, and one that uses less will pay less.
The utility’s published rate documents do not state a dollar figure for the typical bill or the usage level behind it. The management report does list an average residential cost of 12.78 cents per kilowatt-hour for calendar year 2025, a useful number for checking a household’s own bill.
The 2028 step is nearly the same size in percentage terms, 4.6% against 4.7%. A customer who sees $6.60 as the whole story should add the second year: the two steps together raise residential base rates 9.3%.
Live 5 News reported in July that the utility describes the 2027 step as roughly 20 cents a day. The station also reported that Santee Cooper ties the increases to growing demand for power and to system upgrades. Because both steps land in February, the second one arrives 12 months after the first, with no gap for a bill to settle in between.
Why Santee Cooper says it needs the money
Santee Cooper says the rates fund system improvements, including new and upgraded generation and transmission meant to keep service reliable, and cover rising operating expenses. The figures come from a review of projected 2027 and 2028 costs by utility management and outside consultants, according to ABC News 4’s report on the May proposal.
President and CEO Jimmy Staton called the changes “necessary to allow Santee Cooper to continue delivering the reliable, sustainable electricity” customers expect. Spokesperson Tracy Vreeland put it more plainly to ABC News 4 after the vote: Santee Cooper is a not-for-profit utility, so it has to be able to cover its costs.
Not everyone at the public meetings was persuaded. Joel Lee, a customer who attended the first one in Moncks Corner, told Live 5 News the increases add financial pressure and that customers need a break, after describing having to choose between buying gas and paying the electric bill.
The path to the vote was long. The board received the proposed rates May 1 and opened the comment period. Public meetings followed July 27 in Moncks Corner, July 28 at the Waccamaw Neck Library in Pawleys Island and at the Horry-Georgetown office in Myrtle Beach, and a final session Aug. 31 at 2 p.m. Utility management presented its final recommended rates Sept. 29, and the board voted a month later.
A change to how peak demand is billed
The proposal also changed how the utility charges for demand. Under what Santee Cooper calls Balanced Demand Billing, residential and small commercial demand charges would be based on the average of a customer’s highest one-hour usage across the four monthly peak periods, rather than on a single peak hour. The stated goal is to soften the effect of short spikes in usage.
The commercial peak demand window would also shrink from four hours to three, to match the residential peak periods. Staton said the utility listened to customers and made changes based on their experiences and feedback. The announcement did not say how the billing change would alter a typical residential bill.
When the increase first shows up on a bill
The rate change applies to “bills rendered on or after Feb. 1, 2027,” and again on Feb. 1, 2028, the utility’s rate page says. The utility says some customers’ January usage may be included in a bill at the new rates, depending on their billing cycle.
This is the second residential increase in about two years. The utility’s rate study page says the board approved new base rates Dec. 9, 2024, effective with bills on and after April 1, 2025, and calls that the first base rate increase since 2017.
The approved increases are to base rates, the utility’s page says, and its documents do not address other line items on a bill. Customers can compare a January bill and the first February bill line by line to see what moved.
Will a Santee Cooper bill show the new rate in the first February cycle?
A rate the board has approved cannot be argued down on a phone call. What a call can still change is how a bill gets paid: a payment plan, budget billing or a help program, if the utility offers one.
101 Phone Scripts to Lower Your Bills has 101 calls, word for word, for every company you pay, including a section on electric, gas and water: payment plans, budget billing, help programs. It runs 23 pages, and every script is true to say.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
