SC Public Service Commission approves Canadys power plant amid protests

ENVIRONMENT

SC Public Service Commission approves Canadys power plant amid protests

Concerned residents, environmental groups react to recent power plant project approval.

Michael M. DeWitt, Jr.

Bluffton Today

May 22, 2026, 5:06 a.m. ET

Amid citizen protests and concerns over costs and environmental impacts, the South Carolina Public Service Commission has approved the massive Canadys power plant to be constructed in rural Colleton County, on the banks of the Edisto River and in the heart of the ACE Basin watershed.

In a key regulatory approval, on Thursday, May 14, the Public Service Commission (PSC) of South Carolina voted 7-0 to approve an application by Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper to jointly construct Canadys Station.

The proposed natural gas combined-cycle generating facility in Colleton County "is needed to serve South Carolina's rising demand for energy," the energy companies stated in a joint May 14 release.

The proposed plant will provide approximately 2,200 megawatts of electricity – "enough to power over one million homes with advanced, proven technology and state-of-the-art environmental protections," added the release.

"While Canadys Station will help meet the state's growing energy demand, its benefits will extend beyond powering homes and businesses," said Jimmy Staton, President and CEO of Santee Cooper in the release. "Canadys Station is good for the community, respectful of the environment and an excellent value for customers. We appreciate the time and effort the Commissioners spent understanding our plans for this critical energy project, considering the perspectives of interested stakeholders, and making a timely decision."

While located in a rural corner of Colleton County, the new facility will be constructed at a former Dominion Energy coal plant site approximately 40 miles northwest of the urban area of Charleston.

"Strategically positioned at the energy crossroads of the Lowcountry, the site has efficient and cost-effective access to existing and planned transmission lines," stated the release, "The established brownfield site will eliminate the need to acquire and clear large swaths of new land."

"For 50 years, the former Canadys generating station provided reliable energy across the South Carolina Lowcountry while providing economic benefits in partnership with Colleton County," added Keller Kissam, president of Dominion Energy South Carolina. "With its ruling today, the Public Service Commission authorizes Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy to sensibly repurpose this exiting site with state-of-the-art technology to power future generations of the Palmetto State."

Energy officials say the project will provide a "long-lasting economic boost" to the local community, hundreds of contracting jobs will be created during construction, and many full-time jobs will be created to operate the plant.

Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper officials say they will continue to partner on additional regulatory approvals necessary for the project.

In May, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law an energy package that permits Dominion Energy and state-owned utility Santee Cooper to partner on the $2.5 billion, 2,000-megawatt natural gas-fired plant expected to be operational by 2030, but some cost estimates are already exceeding that number, say opponents.

Approval of Canadys power plant comes amid citizen concerns

Prior to this approval, the PSC held hearings on the power plant project, including customer public hearings on March 23 and April 7, and a full evidentiary hearing the week of April 13.

During those hearings, community members shared concerns over plant costs, the impact on their electrical grid and utility bills, and degradation of the ACE Basin watershed area due to the power plant, an associated pipeline, and other industrialization.

This new plant would require the construction of a 70-plus mile underground gas pipeline through two S.C. counties, a project which is already highly contested by local residents and landowners.

To supply this massive new power plant, these S.C. utility partners have contracted with Elba Express Company, LLC (EEC), a Kinder Morgan company, to construct a 71-mile, underground natural gas pipeline from Georgia, across the Savannah River, through Hampton and Colleton counties in lower S.C., in another controversial project that is expected to impact almost 200 property owners.

Environmental groups react to approval of Canadys power plant

For years, environmental and clean energy groups have raised concerns about the project's potential negative impact on nearby communities, the ACE Basin, and other natural resources.

Several of these powerful environmental groups have recently joined the fight on the ground against these proposed projects, including Savannah Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club of South Carolina.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, intervened in the proceeding to raise concerns about the "environmental impacts and rising costs of the massive plant and the 71-mile greenfield pipeline needed to service it."

In response to the gas plant's approval, the groups released the following statements:

"This massive, polluting plant has already doubled in cost from $2.5 to $5 billion in the last year, and the utilities admitted at the hearing that its final costs would likely be even higher," said Kate Mixson, SELC Senior Attorney. "We're certainly worried that the plant and pipeline will negatively impact communities and raise customers' bills. We will closely monitor the project's next steps to ensure its impacts are as mitigated as possible."

"We are deeply concerned about the environmental, public health, and economic impacts of this plant and the associated pipeline, and we are also alarmed by the utilities' repeated delays in retiring the coal units this plant was supposed to replace," added Taylor Allred, State Energy & Climate Program Director at the Coastal Conservation League. "It would be a deep injustice to allow the utilities to raise rates for families and small businesses to fund tens of millions of dollars needed to keep their aging coal units online, on top of the billions spent on this massive gas plant, to serve potential future energy demand from big data centers."

"When you count the all-in cost to customers to build, finance, and operate this gas infrastructure, our predictions two years ago that this project would cost as much as the failed $9 billion VC Summer nuclear project are coming true," said Eddy Moore, SACE Decarbonization Director. "The difference is that the environmental damage from millions of tons per year of new air pollution for 50 years plus using the gas pipeline to industrialize the ACE Basin will be worse. Meanwhile, in the five or more years before this project delivers any power, the world economy will continue to shift towards the cleaner, more advanced energy solutions that South Carolina should embrace."

The Sierra Club has raised serious concerns about what they describe as the "runaway costs" of the project, which they say has already doubled in cost from $2.5 billion to $5 billion since its original proposal in 2024, adding in a release that with this approval from the PSC responded to these concerns not by capping construction costs, but by modifying the proposal to require quarterly reporting on the cumulative costs of construction.

"The site for the gas plant is located in the heart of the ACE Basin, one of the largest undeveloped estuaries along the Atlantic Coast, on the banks of the Edisto River," stated the Sierra Club release. "Burning gas at the Canadys site would require the expansion of hundreds of miles of gas pipeline. Expanding the pipeline will likely encourage additional industrial and data center development along the pipeline, introducing additional pollution and changing the character of surrounding rural areas. The proposed gas pipelines associated with the gas plant introduce further unknown timeline details and cost factors that could drive the costs up since those projects haven't started yet.

"There also still remains the issue of continuing to operate three aging coal plants - Wateree, Williams, and Winyah. The utilities had previously discussed retirement dates for these three costly coal plants in connection with construction of the Canadys plant. Now, even with the approval of the gas plant, they have not made commitments for coal retirement, introducing further concerns about unaffordable costs and increased pollution for residents across the state.

In response, Paul Black, Sr. Campaign Organizer for Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign in the Carolinas, added the following statement:

"Addressing cost concerns with more reporting is like a car salesman trying to sweeten the offer with an itemized receipt. It gives no guarantees. It doesn't change build costs, maintenance, gas prices, or hidden fees, it just ensures that you know more frequently how much money will be going up in smoke. The Canadys proposal has already ballooned in cost. Dominion and Santee Cooper customers deserve a guarantee that construction costs will stay on target, and that when the plant is finished, the utilities will follow through with retiring old and increasingly expensive coal plants like Wateree, Winyah, and Williams."

To learn more about Canadys Station, visit www.canadysstation.com.