Santee Cooper, also known officially from the 1930s as the South Carolina Public Service Authority, is South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility that came into being during the New Deal as both a rural electrification and public works project that created two lakes and cleared large tracts of land while building hydro-electric dams and power plants. Its headquarters are located in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
As one of the largest power providers in South Carolina, Santee Cooper directly serves more than 165,000 residential and commercial customers in Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry counties. With a fuel and energy supply that includes coal, nuclear, oil, natural gas, hydroelectric, and other renewable sources, Santee Cooper supplies power to the cities of Bamberg and Georgetown, 30 large industrial customers, and Charleston Air Force Base. Santee Cooper generates the power distributed by some of South Carolina's electric cooperatives. Following the Nukegate scandal, the South Carolina General Assembly debated whether to privatize or reform Santee Cooper, ultimately passing a reform bill that overhauled the regulation and oversight of the state-owned utility.
