Santee Cooper OKs loan for inland port substation

August 29, 2013

Santee Cooper said Monday its board of directors approved $7.5 million in loans to help construct a substation to serve the S.C. Inland Port in Greer, as well as industrial spec buildings in Anderson and Dillon counties.

The funding is part of $15.5 million in economic development loans approved under the utility’s 14-month-old infrastructure development program. Through the program, Santee Cooper partners with local governments and other nonprofit entities throughout South Carolina, specifically in areas served by Santee Cooper or its wholesale customers.

“Many of these projects benefit communities that are still suffering from the recession, and so our ability to help build water, sewer, roads and buildings will yield tangible returns in terms of new jobs, capital investment and improved quality of life,” Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter said in a news release.

Santee Cooper said it will loan $3.5 million to the city of Greer and the Greer Commission of Public Works to design and build a substation that will provide electricity to the Inland Port set to open this fall. The substation will also let Greer CPW provide capacity to serve additional industrial customers that would locate in and around the port. Greer CPW receives power from the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency, which begins buying power from Santee Cooper in 2014.

Read the full article from GSA Business.