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Earlier this week, our media outlet reported on South Carolina senators’ ongoing efforts to reach some sort of consensus regarding the Palmetto State’s increasingly tenuous energy future.
Residentially and commercially, the need for new power generation is pressing… and so far lawmakers have failed abjectly to address it. Talk? Yes. Action? Negative.
Will they get their act together and address this looming crisis in the coming year? And, if so, how?
We shall see… but our outlet will continue to track this critical issue (as well as developments related to key players in the industry).
Speaking of, prior to this week’s big legislative meeting I broke some utility news on X…
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.@DukeEnergy has tapped former @NikkiHaley advisor Tim Pearson as its new South Carolina president. Interesting choice…
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) October 16, 2024
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Duke Energy – a company harshly criticized by this outlet – tapped former Nikki Haley chief of staff Tim Pearson to lead its South Carolina operation. Not its media operation, mind you… or its government affairs shop. Pearson, believe it or not, was put in charge of Duke’s entire South Carolina show.
Pearson’s ascension to this position of prominence caught many by surprise… and received less than favorable reviews from industry insiders.
“In what world is Tim Pearson qualified to lead a major utility’s state operation?” one told us.
Given my outlet’s prior criticism of Duke – and this author’s well-known history with Haley and those in her orbit – many expected me to deliver the definitive evisceration of Pearson’s selection.
Some even encouraged me to do so…
“Finish him!” one texted, sending me a .gif from the old Mortal Kombat game.
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As tempting as such a column would have been to write, my media outlet has evolved since the last time Pearson’s name graced these pages. So as much as I would love to use this space to settle old scores, doing so feels incompatible with our current mission. Beneath it, really.
The reality is that Pearson is facing multiple serious challenges as he takes the reins of Duke South Carolina – and none of them are going to be exacerbated or ameliorated by political squabbles. Earlier this year, his predecessor noted the company was “projecting eight times the load growth (it) anticipated just two years ago.”
“This additional demand for energy is unprecedented – historic in both size and speed,” former president Mike Callahan said in the spring.
Documents filed earlier this year with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) – including an amended integrated resource plan (.pdf) – referenced the need for “additional procurement and development activities” and “decisive actions” in response to this explosive demand curve.
Specifically, the report cited economic development in the Carolinas as “occurring at a scale and pace that is well beyond (Duke’s) historical experience.” It also referenced “the migration of new residential customers to the Carolinas and the acceleration of transportation electrification” as driving the company’s need for new power.
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RELATED | ANOTHER NUKEGATE?
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“This higher forecasted demand requires additional resources to maintain or improve grid reliability while meeting increased energy and capacity requirements,” Duke noted.
So yeah… Pearson’s got a little bit on his plate.
I’ve written in the past about Duke’s poor resource planning… the consequences of which Pearson and his fellow Duke executives are now inheriting. But those bad decisions are not unique to Duke. Nor is the demand problem South Carolina is currently experiencing completely (or even mostly) of the utilities’ doing – as politicians in the Palmetto State have proven time and again they are utterly incapable of handling this issue.
Bottom line: Pearson will sink or swim based on his own merit… or lack thereof. No amount of snark from my keyboard is going to change that. Also, whether he sinks or swims won’t ultimately be determined by anything he does – it will be decided by Duke’s resource planners and the politicians and regulators in Raleigh and Columbia crunching their numbers.
The real question? How to make those numbers add up…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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2 comments
There is ZERO planning in SC-only “accommodating” developers. Infrastructure is an afterthought. It’s way past time that not only counties develop master plans, but the state legislature has been negligent in doing so. Jim DeMint was no mere futurist when he saw the need for rail. He was scoffed. Upstate Forever had the forsight to see the need to protect a vital ecosystem. Perhaps instead of giving Scout Motors $1.3 billion for nothing, & Bill Stern $500 million in leases, funds should be set aside for smart planning, for underground utilities, for a moratorium on major development until
the legislature & counties stop prioritizing helter/skelter building but re-read “No Man Is An Island” and understand the need for sustainable development.
The Black Eye of Monticello still stings, and will for decades to come. The result of passing crony legislation (i.e., the “Rankin Spankin”) that allows a utility to shift all financial consequences of its project risk to the ratepayers and taxpayers. It is an age- old axiom of human nature that when you remove the consequences of poor performance and failure, almost every time, that is precisely what you receive. The reasonable fear of failure is a powerful motivator in the construction industry. Somehow the key committee members of the legislature failed to understand it, or the steak dinners, golf outings and top shelf bourbon was just too persuasive. The kicker of all this is that we are going to have to go back to the table for nuclear – there is just no way around it. All things considered, nuclear is the best source of power. It is certainly the most resilient in terms of withstanding what mother nature can throw at it and longevity of usage.