Who needs Dominion, Let's get our power locally
Dominion is already asking for a 12% rate hike, and now they’re exploring a merger with NextEra — creating one of the largest for‑profit utility companies in the country. The main purpose of the new company- feed Googles AI centers My concern is simple: a bigger for‑profit utility means higher pressure to generate returns for shareholders, and those profits increasingly come from selling power to large data centers and AI. Residential customers end up footing the bill.
Meanwhile, Charleston customers have already paid heavily into the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project through previous rate structures. Dominion wrote off its share, but the costs didn’t disappear — they were absorbed into the system we’re still paying into.
There is another model right next door.
Santee Cooper is a state‑owned, non‑profit utility whose service area is just north of Charleston. They operate without shareholders, without profit requirements, and with lower financing costs. Their rates are consistently lower than Dominion’s, and they’ve already contracted to finish the two V.C. Summer units — the same project Charleston customers helped fund.
Santee Cooper has always had lower rates. A non‑profit public utility has different incentives than a for‑profit corporation planning a mega‑merger.
My question for Charleston is this:
Would we be better served long‑term by a locally controlled, state‑owned, non‑profit utility — instead of being absorbed into a larger for‑profit conglomerate whose priorities may not align with residential customers?
There is a 12 to 18 month window before the merger takes place.