service authority type public power utility industry electric and water utility founded 1934 headquarters moncks corner sc website santee cooper santee cooper also known officially from the 1930s as the south carolina public service authority is south carolina s state owned electric and water utility that came into being during the new deal as both a rural electrification and public works project that created two lakes and cleared large tracts of land while building hydro electric dams and power plants . its headquarters are located in moncks corner south carolina . as one of the largest power providers in south carolina santee cooper directly serves more than 165 000 residential and commercial customers in berkeley georgetown and horry counties . with a diverse fuel and energy supply of coal nuclear oil gas hydro and some renewable energy santee cooper supplies power to the cities of bamberg and georgetown 30 large industrial customers and charleston air force base . santee cooper generates the power distributed by south carolina s 20 electric cooperatives . the people of south carolina govern santee cooper through a board of directors appointed by the governor and approved by the state senate . a board member represents each congressional district and each of the three counties where santee cooper serves retail customers directly ; one board member has previous electric cooperative experience ; and the chairman is appointed at large . contents 1 santee cooper lakes 2 biomass plant 3 see also 4 references santee cooper lakes edit the santee cooper power and navigation project constructed in 1939 improved navigation on and provided hydroelectric power from the santee and cooper rivers in south carolina . with the creation of lake marion and lake moultrie the project was intended to improve the health recreation and economy of the area . at the time the santee cooper project was the largest land clearing project in u.s. history with over 12 500 workers clearing over 177 000 acres 720 km2 of swamp and forestland . 42 miles 68 km of dams and dikes were constructed including a 26 mile 42 km 78 foot 24 m tall earthen dike . the pinopolis dam included the hydroelectric station and navigation lock the highest single lift lock in the world . a 3 400 foot 1 000 m spillway was built to control floodwaters with 62 gates allowing overflow of excess water . in completing the largest earth moving project in the nation s history 42 000 000 cubic yards 32 000 000 m3 of earth were moved and 3.1 million cubic yards of concrete were poured . the 48.2 million project 55 percent federal loan 45 percent federal grant first generated electricity on february 17 1942 . as transmission lines were built power flowed to customers in berkeley georgetown and horry counties and ultimately to electric cooperatives serving customers in 46 counties . biomass plant edit a biomass plant to generate electricity for santee cooper will open in newberry county south carolina in 2011 1 see also edit lake marion lake moultrie santee river cooper river references edit rollcast energy to build s.c. biomass facility . charlotte business journal . 2008 10 15 . retrieved 2011 04 05 . santee cooper project clemson university libraries 2001 history of santee cooper santee cooper 2015 history of santee cooper santee cooper kids 2003 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title santee cooper & oldid 686964286 categories municipal electric utilities of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 october 2015 at 13 45 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view