The South Carolina Public Service Commission may soon hear two requests to allow companies to build data centers in Aiken County.
The Public Service Commission is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. May 14 to hear a request for upgrades to allow Aiken Electric Cooperative to provide power to the data center.
The commission “essentially acts as a court” for utilities and other regulated companies seeking infrastructure upgrades or rate changes.
Aiken Electric will provide power to the data center, but Santee Cooper (also known as the South Carolina Department of Public Service) and Central Electric Power Cooperative submitted upgrade requests to the commission.
Santee Cooper is a national power company that generates electricity at four power plants. It sells a portion of the electricity it generates to Central Electric, which sells the electricity to 18 member-owned electric cooperatives in South Carolina, including Aiken Electric. Aiken Electric then sells the electricity to its members.
Santee Cooper told the Public Service Commission that the interior renovation of Aiken No. 1 substation, the expansion of the existing Aiken No. 3 substation, and the 230 kilovolt The government is requesting approval for the installation of two power transmission lines. (distance 26.2 miles) within existing right-of-way.
The company plans to begin construction in August and operationalize the upgrade in fall 2025.
Central Electric is seeking approval to construct two new 230 kilovolt transmission lines on a new site between the Mount Zion switchyard and a substation to be built on the company’s property, a distance of 2.5 miles. A request was made to the Public Interest Commission.
If the upgrade is approved, the data center would be built in the Sage Mill Industrial Park, according to publicly available information.
Sage Mill Industrial Park is located on Bettis Academy Road between Interstate 20 and the Edgefield County line.
First, Aiken Electric supplies power to the Sage Mill Industrial Park.
Second, a map included in the application to the Public Service Commission shows property in the Sage Mill Industrial Park owned by Starsky LLC.
Starsky LLC purchased approximately 570 acres in the Sage Mill Industrial Park on Dec. 7, 2022, for $19.3 million, according to Aiken County property tax records.
Third, Starsky is a data collection company, according to information provided to the Aiken County Council last April by Will Williams, president and CEO of the Western South Carolina Economic Development Partnership.
And fourth, there is an existing substation north of Mount Zion Road. The substation is located approximately 2.4 miles from the farthest point of Starsky’s property.
If the power upgrade is for Starskey, the data center could see an $800 million investment and the creation of 50 new jobs.
The Aiken County Council voted last April to offer the company a property tax in-compensation agreement. In exchange for the investment, Aiken County agreed that the company would pay fees based on a 4% assessment rate (the typical business rate is 6%) and a rate of $235.2 million for the next 40 years.
Although the county’s agreement is with Starsky, the data center will belong to a different company.
Williams told the Aiken Standard last April that Starsky represents one of the top five data center developers in the world.
The Public Service Commission hearing will be held at 101 Executive Center Drive in Columbia.
For more information, contact the Public Service Commission at 803-896-5100.
