SC Utility News Digest: 2/16/14

Friday, February 21, 2014

TEGA CAY: EPA serves notice on utility after Tega Cay sewage spills | State | The State

By John Marks and Anna Douglas

jmarks@fortmilltimes.com adouglas@heraldonline.comFebruary 20, 2014 Updated 12 hours ago

The EPA notice requires the company to follow guidelines for updating and improving its system outlined in DHEC’s order. The EPA will monitor the utility’s progress as it develops an improvement plan and repairs wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure during the next two years. Utilities Inc. may be subject to “additional enforcement action” until the work is complete, according to the EPA.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/20/3279854/epa-services-notice-on-utility.html#storylink=cpy

Lineman restoring power, hit by car, continues working with brok - WBTW-TV: News, Weather, and Sports for Florence, SC

As Pendleton and his crew were working along Highway 521 near the town of Foreston, they heard a car approaching at a high rate of speed. That car struck another car in the road, then spun around. It was heading toward Pendleton when Santee Electric Cooperative lineman Scott Lee grabbed Pendleton and pulled him out of the way. Santee Electric reports the car grazed Pendleton on his left side. He later learned that he'd actually broken his knee cap. But instead of heading back to his home and his children in North Carolina to recuperate, Pendleton stayed and was back on the job site the next day.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Utilities closing in on final customers without power

1 hours ago • By

As of 5 p.m. Monday, Edisto Electric Cooperative had about 2,400
customers still without power across the cooperative’s eight-county
region, including Orangeburg and Bamberg counties.

At the height of the storm there were 14,500 customers without power, Chief Executive Officer David Felkel said.“Our entire system was hit severely hard by this ice storm,” he said.

Pax Packed a Punch - The News | Kingstree, SC

Michaele Duke

Published Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Of Santee Electric's44,226 total members affected, about 12,000 were
in Williamsburg County, followed by 9,000 in Clarendon County, 9,000 in
Florence County, approximately 12,000 in Georgetown County. Two days
prior to the storm, Santee Electric Cooperative began calling in
assistance. As a result, more than 250 extra men worked to get
electricity restored. Duke Energy also brought in additional resources
from the company’s Midwest and Florida operations that included
helicopter trimming crews. Crews, including 3,900 field workers, worked
to restore 91,000 outages across the Carolinas. In addition, other crews
traveled from Sumter as well as Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Solar power boosters keep 'pressure' on lawmakers | Business | The State

By SAMMY FRETWELL

sfretwell@thestate.comFebruary 18, 2014 Updated 4 hours ago

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/18/3274362/solar-power-boosters-keep-pressure.html#storylink=cpy

Two primary bills are before the Legislature that would ease solar restrictions. One would increase solar tax credits. That made it out of a committee recently and is now before the full Senate. But that bill has an objection from state Sen, Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, which makes passage difficult.

The other bill would allow solar companies to set up shop in South Carolina. Those companies help people pay for solar panels, which despite dropping panel prices, are still too expensive for many people to afford. Current law makes it difficult for these companies to move into the territories of power companies, install solar panels on people's roofs and sell the power back to homeowners, which can cut power bills. Power companies are now working on a compromise bill.