Santee Cooper is ponying up at least $83 million for power that will flow from the nation's newest nuclear reactors to ensure it can meet short-term demand on its system.

The utility has struck a deal to buy electricity generated at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia from Jacksonville, Fla.-based JEA, which approved the purchase agreement last week.

State-owned Santee Cooper will pay at least $83 million to tap into 206 megawatts in 2027 — enough to run up to about 200,000 homes — and 103 megawatts the next year.

JEA's board was told last week that it could expect $203 million in revenue from the agreement while also confirming the $83 million figure on March 5.

The city-run Florida utility pays $250 million annually under a long-term contract to buy electricity from Plant Vogtle, according to a report in the Jacksonville Daily Record. JEA is offsetting the energy it's selling with new purchase agreements with Florida Power & Light.

Santee Cooper said it began scouring the market to buy excess electricity last year in what it described as an increasingly routine business practice for the utility industry.

The JEA deal was the largest of the transactions.

“Energy purchases we make over those two years would be based on pricing and our system needs," Santee Cooper said this week.

Opened in the late 1980s, the Alvin W. Vogtle Generating Plant is about 10 miles west of the Savannah River and Allendale County in South Carolina. It's operated by Southern Co.’s Georgia Power division.

Two of the four nuclear reactors at the site were completed in 2023 and 2024, making them the last in the U.S. to plug into the grid. Santee Cooper’s agreement with JEA requires that all of power comes from the new units, which cost about $35 billion to construct.

The Palmetto State utility serves about 2.2 million residents and businesses, directly or indirectly through small electric cooperatives. It has estimated that energy-intensive data centers will drive about 70 percent of its future power demand, coupled with population increases and commercial growth.

Santee Cooper is entering year two of a $10.6 billion decade-long capital spending plan to add 650 megawatts of new power to its system by 2028. It said the deal with JEA and other suppliers will "support customer needs before those resources are complete."

Santee Cooper this week finalized a deal to borrow about $650 million, partly to help pay for an array of upgrades and system expansions that will begin in 2026. Its biggest long-term financial commitment will be half of a $5 billion natural-gas plant that it's proposing to build with Dominion Energy in Colleton County by 2033. The Canadys project is expected to add another 1,100 megawatts to its system.

Santee Cooper had planned by now to be tapping into its own clean energy produced at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station that it partly owns. But in mid-2017, the utility and Dominion Energy’s predecessor abandoned work on two reactors they were building at the site following years of delays, mismanagement and cost overruns.

Brookfield Asset Management is now negotiating with Santee Cooper to buy a majority stake in the unfinished units for $2.7 billion.

CLARENDON COUNTY, S.C. — The final day of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech finally started on time and went a lot better for most of the field. Stop 2 Presented by Star brite at Santee Cooper was pegged as one to watch, and today showed why, as 13 pros caught more than 25 pounds.

Leading after the first day, Aaron Yavorsky kept right on chugging, adding an even 32 pounds to his 35-4 to total up 67-4 and earn the win in style. Finishing second, Matteo Turano backed up his first day with 28-10 to also cross the 60-pound barrier with 60-3, and Cal Lane tallied up 59-7 on nine bass to finish third.

For the win, the 19-year-old Yavorsky takes home $100,000 and a REDCREST qualification. He also moves into the lead for 7Brew Angler of the Year – narrowly ahead of Brody Campbell. Pro Circuit action resumes in late March on the Tennessee River for Stop 3 Presented by Suzuki Marine on Wheeler Lake.

In terms of two-day cumulative weights on the Pro Circuit, Yavorsky’s winning total is actually the fifth-highest all-time. And the young pro has now qualified for both the Bassmaster Classic and REDCREST before his 20th birthday.

Those accomplishments aside, he fished very well this week, but he didn’t do anything crazy to win – a minnow on offshore targets is a pretty solid game plan in the prespawn.

“I did some research; I heard Marion is a little sketchy to run, so I went to Moultrie,” he said. “I fished the wind-protected side the first day and fished some grass, didn’t do good, and then found some brush and stumps that had fish. I caught a 6-pounder on my first one, and that was interesting. Day 2 was slick calm, and I got to ride around the whole lake – there really wasn’t much stuff, but I found a couple places that had some giants. I didn’t really know the potential, but I would throw and see a bunch of big ones chasing my bait.”

Throwing a 7-inch Sense Shindo Shad on a 4.4-gram head with an 8-pound leader and a 7-foot Fitzgerald Fishing spinning rod was the ticket for Yavorsky. With it, he attacked brush and stumps in and on the edges of ditches in 15 to 20 feet.

“Day 1, I pulled up to one pile and they were just stacked – I caught 35 [pounds] in like 30 minutes,” he said. “In practice, that same pile, I threw my bait over it and like 30 big ones came out. I tried catching them, and they wouldn’t eat – I think it was a timing thing.”

Day 2, Yavorsky had to move a lot more, and he burned a pretty solid chunk of his three-hours of sonar running from target to target.

“Today, I went there first thing and caught a 6-pounder, and they didn’t turn on,” he said. “I ran around, and I went back to that place – I probably had 24 or 25 (pounds) at the time – and I caught an 8 and a 6. In my last 15 minutes of ‘Scope, I hit a stump I had, and I caught one almost 7 to put me over 30 pounds.

“I knew I had to run and gun; it was my whole game plan,” he said. “But it does get to you – I made a run down to the south end today to fish one brushpile, and somebody was already there. I probably wasted 20 minutes making that run – it’s stressful.”

This week, Yavorsky thinks that not having too many options actually helped him – a windy practice and it being his first time to the lake allowed him to focus on the best things he found.

“I usually like to pre-practice places, and I feel like if I pre-practiced here, it might have hurt me,” he said. “If you don’t, you never really know, but I think it helped this week. I think I would have had too much stuff to run and check. This week, I had a nice amount of stuff, and I stuck with it.”

One of the last anglers to sign up for all six events on the Pro Circuit schedule, Yavorsky actually rode the waitlist for a while. After the first two events, it’s already looking like a great decision.

“When they released the schedule, I saw that Harris was first and Kissimmee had the championship,” he said. “I knew that I needed to try to get in this. I had already visited like half the schedule – it looked good. But it took me a little while to figure out if I would be able to afford expenses.”

Now, he’s leading the points, a champion and rolling after a whirlwind start.

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “After Harris, taking the lead on Day 1 and then just bombing, I was pretty hungry for this one. I practiced pretty hard, I stayed focused, I locked in. Hopefully I can do that all year.”

1. Aaron Yavorsky – 67 – 4 (10) – $100,0002. Matteo Turano – 60 – 3 (10) – $24,8003. Cal Lane – 59 – 7 (9) – $19,9004. Hayden O’Barr – 57 – 13 (10) – $17,9005. Brody Campbell – 55 – 0 (10) – $16,9006. Levi Thibodaux – 53 – 15 (10) – $15,9007. Austin Pemberton – 53 – 5 (10) – $15,0008. Banks Shaw – 52 – 3 (10) – $14,0009. TJ McKenzie – 49 – 14 (10) – $13,00010. Ethan Fields – 46 – 11 (9) – $12,000