Santee Cooper class action lawsuit settlement funds to be distributed

News & Announcements / 4 minutes of reading /

If you were a mem­ber of York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive for any peri­od between Jan. 1, 2007–Jan. 31, 2020, you may receive an unex­pect­ed bill cred­it or check this month.

These cred­its (for amounts of $50 or less) and checks (for amounts greater than $50) are the result of a class-action set­tle­ment involv­ing the failed nuclear con­struc­tion project at V.C. Sum­mer Nuclear Gen­er­at­ing Sta­tion. The funds are being paid by San­tee Coop­er, a state-owned util­i­ty that par­tial­ly owned the project.

 YEC did not own the project. How­ev­er, because we buy from San­tee Coop­er some of the pow­er we deliv­er to our mem­bers, some mem­bers may be due bill cred­its or pay­ments. Your coop­er­a­tive did not cal­cu­late the pay­ments. They result­ed from a court-approved process after a set­tle­ment agree­ment was reached between the par­ties in the class-action law­suit.

Cook v. San­tee Coop­er Class Action Law­suit Web­site

Frequently Asked Questions

San­tee Coop­er Class Action Law­suit Set­tle­ment Funds Dis­tri­b­u­tion

  1. I noticed a cred­it on my bill (or, I got a check in the mail) for some­thing relat­ed to a class action set­tle­ment. What’s that about?
    A class-action law­suit was filed in 2017 fol­low­ing the fail­ure of the con­struc­tion project for two nuclear units at the V.C. Sum­mer Nuclear Gen­er­at­ing Sta­tion in Fair­field Coun­ty. San­tee Coop­er and SCE&G (now Domin­ion Ener­gy) were the own­ers of the project. The law­suit argued that con­sumers should not have to pay for the near­ly $9 bil­lion in costs that were sunk into the failed project and essen­tial­ly lost with noth­ing to show for them. Your coop­er­a­tive was not a par­ty to the case, but your rights were affect­ed. Before the law­suit went to tri­al, the par­ties came to an agree­ment and set­tled the suit. The set­tle­ment agree­ment called for $520 mil­lion to be returned to cus­tomers of San­tee Coop­er and the mem­bers of elec­tric coop­er­a­tives.
  2. How were the cred­its issued?
    Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers who were due more than $50 got a check in the mail. Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers who were paid $50 or less got a cred­it on their elec­tric­i­ty bill.
  3. Did the cooperatives—and specif­i­cal­ly my cooperative—own part of the failed nuclear units?
    No. But our pow­er sup­pli­er, Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive, buys a lot of the pow­er we use from San­tee Coop­er. And Cen­tral was required to pay for part of the con­struc­tion project while it was ongo­ing. So, Cen­tral and York Elec­tric Cooperative’s mem­bers are due some of the set­tle­ment funds that are being returned. That’s why you’re get­ting a pay­ment.
  4. Is the bill cred­it I got this month all there is?
    Yes. The first bill cred­it or pay­ment mem­bers received in 2020 rep­re­sent­ed about 70% of the amount com­ing to you. A sec­ond cred­it or pay­ment for the remain­ing 30% is being applied in Feb­ru­ary or March. That’s the way the plan was set up by the court. We don’t have con­trol over the tim­ing.
  5. My bill cred­it sure was small. Why so lit­tle?
    Pay­ments were cal­cu­lat­ed based on how much elec­tric­i­ty you pur­chased dur­ing a spe­cif­ic time peri­od through Jan­u­ary 31, 2020. So, if you were only a mem­ber for a short amount of time before then, you real­ly didn’t pay much for the nuclear plant’s con­struc­tion.
  6. Why didn’t I get any mon­ey?
    The class in the class-action law­suit includ­ed only those peo­ple who were mem­bers through Jan­u­ary 31, 2020. So, if you came online with the coop­er­a­tive after­ward, you did not have charges on your elec­tric bill inside the class peri­od.
  7. How was my amount cal­cu­lat­ed?
    Your share of the set­tle­ment was based on your pow­er use, but York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive did not per­form the final cal­cu­la­tion. That was between the court and the firm hired to admin­is­ter the set­tle­ment, a firm called Epiq (pro­nounced eh’-pic), a glob­al firm in the legal ser­vices indus­try. If you have any ques­tions regard­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of the Set­tle­ment, you may con­tact the Set­tle­ment Admin­is­tra­tor. Please include your name and your return address on all cor­re­spon­dence.

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