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:

• Ranks 21 of all the states in power consumed per capita
• South Carolina ranks among the top one-fourth of the states in retail sales of electricity per capita, and more than 70% of state households heat with electricity
• South Carolina’s four nuclear power plants supplied slightly more than half of the state’s electricity net generation in 2019, and the state was the third-largest generator of nuclear power in the nation
• Natural gas deliveries to South Carolina’s electric power sector have more than doubled in the past decade, increasing from 74.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2009 to 186.3 billion cubic feet in 2019
• Hydropower and biomass … South Carolina’s primary renewable resources
• South Carolina’s industrial sector is the largest end-use energy sector and accounts for about one-third of the state’s total energy consumption