On May 7, the South Carolina Senate passed HB 3309 after a rushed process in the House that stripped away key consumer protections, weakened energy efficiency provisions, and removed a provision requiring data centers to pay their fair share for energy use. With just days left in the legislative session, the Senate was pressured to pass a version that leaves South Carolinians exposed to higher costs and reduced oversight.
The final version of HB 3309 includes provisions that allow utilities to bypass full rate cases and raise customer rates annually with minimal oversight. It also incentivizes costly, capital-intensive projects that benefit utility shareholders while limiting public and regulatory scrutiny. The bill grants approval for Santee Cooper and Dominion to jointly build a large new fossil gas plant, doubling down on outdated energy investments. The House also removed a provision that would have required data centers to pay their fair share of infrastructure costs. In addition, it stripped away basic ratepayer protections, including the requirement to provide advance notice to landowners before using eminent domain for energy infrastructure projects.
“It’s deeply disappointing to see nearly a year of thoughtful, expert-driven work in the Senate discarded in favor of a rushed process that puts utility profits ahead of communities in South Carolina,” said Jake Duncan, Vote Solar’s Southeast Senior Regulatory Director. “While the original bill had room for improvement and we didn’t agree with everything in it, it was still a thoughtful and measured bill.”
Despite major changes, the bill held onto some of its original language supporting clean energy progress. It allows utilities to develop new customer-side distributed energy resource (DER) programs, expanding opportunities for solar paired with storage, load flexibility and electric vehicles. It also improves and formalizes the competitive procurement process for utility-scale renewable energy projects. In addition, the bill enhances energy efficiency (EE) programs by permitting the Public Service Commission (PSC) to set EE targets for utilities, and if those targets are not met, the PSC can appoint a third-party administrator. However, the House weakened these EE provisions by removing stronger language from the Senate version that would have required the PSC to approve all cost-effective efficiency measures, explicitly set EE targets and impose penalties on utilities that failed to meet them.
“South Carolinians deserve more than rushed policies and rising bills; they deserve a fair, transparent energy system,” Duncan said. “Vote Solar will continue to advocate for policies that increase access to local solar solutions and put communities first.”
News item from Vote Solar
Another positive for C&I solar was the raising of the net metering cap to 5MW (up from 1MW) for large customers on time-of-use rates. Hopefully, this allows more of SC’s manufacturers to install substantial behind the meter systems to help with their sustainability goals.