South Carolina Energy Facts

South Carolina and the Energy Consumer

South Carolina’s public energy roots trace back at least to 1846 with the Charleston Gas Light Company. It was the United States Electric illuminating Company of Charleston that was the first electric central station for incandescent lighting in October 1882, a month after Thomas Edison opened his Pearl Street plant in New York City.

Energy overview:

• Natural gas deliveries to South Carolina’s electric power sector have almost quadrupled in the past decade, from 46.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2008 to 176.8 billion cubic feet in 2018.
• Electricity generation at South Carolina’s natural gas-fired power plants exceeded the state’s coal-fired generation in 2018 for the first time.
• South Carolina’s four nuclear power plants supplied just over half of the state’s net electricity generation in 2018, and the state was the third-largest producer of nuclear power in the nation. The State took a hit in nuclear when new reactor construction was stopped.
• In 2018, renewable energy resources–mainly hydropower, biomass, and solar energy–accounted for about 6% of South Carolina’s electricity net generation.
• Nearly 9 out of 10 barrels of petroleum used in South Carolina is consumed by the transportation sector, mostly in the form of motor gasoline.
• (Data from the US Energy Information Agency)

Energy Consumers of the Carolinas devotes this space to issues in South Carolina: Observations, questions, and viewpoints from people across a spectrum of energy and consumer interests.