Santee Cooper Gets Serious About South Carolina

Santee Cooper is on a mission to help companies select the best possible site for their next facility.

Indeed, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility has been a leader in economic development in the Palmetto State for more than 50 years, helping countless corporations get the biggest bang for their economic development bucks.

As the largest provider of electricity in South Carolina, Santee Cooper has supported communities, economic development organizations, and electric cooperatives throughout the state. To be sure, Santee Cooper’s low-cost power has attracted scores of new business and even new industry to South Carolina, resulting in thousands of jobs and economic impact measured in billions of dollars.

Based on generation, Santee Cooper is the nation’s second-largest electric utility among state, municipal and locally owned systems. The utility has generation and power delivery capability that exceeds 5,000 megawatts. To top it off, Santee Cooper industrial rates are ranked among the lowest in the nation.

Santee Cooper remains committed to providing the power that drives the machines of business, which make life more fulfilling by creating quality jobs and paying utility wages. Santee Cooper generates power for the state’s growth, for more people and for more industry. Doubtless, the work of Santee Cooper results in sustaining employment, increasing productivity, and ultimately helping South Carolina grow and prosper.

Santee Cooper currently has available industrial, commerce and business parks suitable for location or expansion, and works hand-in-hand with the State Department of Commerce, municipalities, local and county government agencies, and all 20 of the state’s electric cooperatives in assisting with site selection, permitting and other services.

That’s because Santee Cooper knows that South Carolina offers increasingly attractive advantages for industrial and commercial location and expansion, including a lower-than-average cost of living, a full range of business resources, a highly trainable workforce, an enviable quality of life, reasonable land costs, abundant recreation, the Port of Charleston, the second-largest container port on the East Coast,and, of course, Santee Cooper as a low-cost and reliable source of power.

In order to fulfill this lofty mission, Santee Cooper is committed to being the lowest-cost producer and distributor of reliable energy, water and other essential services. Santee Cooper’s generation availability and its transmission and distribution reliability factors are the highest in the state and exceed the national averages.

What’s more, Santee Cooper is committed to providing excellent customer service. Providing reliable, dependable and economic power, Santee Cooper maintains one of the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the nation with annual survey ratings exceeding 99 percent.

Finally, Santee Cooper is committed to maintaining a quality workforce through effective employee involvement and training, operating according to the highest ethical standards and protecting the environment. That means the utility’s commitment to its mission – stimulating economic development for the betterment of South Carolina – will not change.

At the end of the day, Santee Cooper’s commitment to economic development in the state is summed up in one sentence: to be the state’s leading resource for improving the quality of life for the people of South Carolina.

For more information about South Carolina, call Santee Cooper at 843-761-8000, or visit http://www.santeecooper.com/aboutus/economicdev.html or www.scprimesites.com. Contact George Haygood, Program Director – Economic Development.