PSCMeeting (copy)

Twenty-nine new candidates applied for four open positions on the South Carolina Public Service Commission, which regulates investor-owned utilities. File

Twenty-nine additional candidates have applied for jobs on the S.C. Public Service Commission, providing lawmakers with more choices and highlighting how important utility regulations have become in the state.

The new crop of names will be competing for four open positions on the panel, the agency that regulates investor-owned gas, water, electric and telecommunications companies that do business in the state. 

South Carolina's 170 state lawmakers will vote to decide who fills those spots later this year. And there is already stiff competition for the four regulatory jobs, which pay roughly $129,000 per year. 

A panel of lawmakers vetted 17 other candidates earlier this year, and decided six of them met all of the qualifications. 

Legislators then voted to reopen the search process last month in order to draw in a wider pool of candidates. 

The new recruits will now have to jump through the same hoops as the earlier candidates. They will be tested on their knowledge about utility regulations in South Carolina, and will be scrutinized by the same panel of state lawmakers in upcoming hearings. 

The four seats they are vying for are broken up by the state's congressional districts. The PSC candidates this year come from the state’s 1st, 3rd, 5th or 7th congressional districts.

The largest pool of candidates is from the 1st District, which includes Charleston, with 13 candidates running to fill that seat. 

The high level of interest in the PSC follows several years of controversy over the failed expansion of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant. The project saddled electric ratepayers of South Carolina Electric & Gas with $2.3 billion in debt for two unfinished nuclear reactors in Fairfield County. 

The upcoming election in the Legislature could sweep out the last PSC commissioner who oversaw that nearly decadelong project. The election is also likely to coincide with some rather large regulatory cases in South Carolina. 

Dominion Energy, which bought SCE&G last year, is expected to file a case with the commission by May that will seek to adjust the monthly bills of its roughly 722,000 power customers in South Carolina.

It's unclear if that case will be decided before the new utility regulators join the commission. 

Our twice-weekly newsletter features all the business stories shaping Charleston and South Carolina. Get ahead with us - it's free.


Reach Andrew Brown at 843-708-1830 or follow him on Twitter @andy_ed_brown.

Similar Stories