The company is also proposing the addition of a 540 MW gas-fired power plant, which would replace more than 40% of the projected power that was to be provided to SCE&G from the V.C. Summer nuclear construction project. Along with more gas-fired generation the utility would add about 100 MW of large-scale solar energy, representing an approximate 50% increase in non-rooftop solar capacity.

"We've heard our customers' frustrations about paying for a power plant and having nothing to show for it," said Keller Kissam, the current SCE&G president of retail operations. Kissam will become the utility's president and COO at the beginning of next year.

According to SCANA CFO Jimmy Addison, who will become its CEO next year, current projections "indicate that if this proposal is adopted, we would not need an additional generation source for several years. This is a key step to meeting South Carolina's robust economic growth."

SCE&G owns 55% of its abandoned two-reactor expansion project at the VC Summer plant, along with partner Santee Cooper. Proposed in 2008, the expansion was supposed to cost less than $12 billion. But SCANA and Santee Cooper abandoned the project over the summer, already having spent $9 billion. They said completing construction would take years and costs could spiral to $25 billion.