County to Vote on New Duke Gas Plant Final Reading Tuesday
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Anderson County Council will meet Tuesday a 6:30 p.m. with the most consequential business involving an agreement with Duke Energy, whose proposed $2.5 billion gas combined-cycle plant, which includes a fee-in-lieu agreement for the project, which will bring about 30 jobs (at salaries mostly in excess of $100,000), and a projected annual payroll of $3.1 million that would, over 40 years, pour $702 million into county coffers.
This is a super fee FILOT, one of South Carolina’s tools aimed at luring colossal industry, such as Duke, with a four percent assessment ratio—slashed from the standard 6—on a fixed millage of 0.34385 mills, all for investments north of $400 million, or a $150 million with more than 125 jobs attached. The agreement would offset infrastructure costs, up to 20 years’ worth, provided Duke meets its thresholds: $2.2 billion invested by year five, or else the credits wither to 25 percent, the term to 30 years. The plant’s air-cooling $100 million retrofit, would tame water use from 10 million gallons daily to a fraction, mindful of sewer limits.
At the March 17 council meeting, Councilwoman Cindy Wilson invoked the Lee Steam Plant as precedent, that old Duke coal-to-gas conversion in her district which, after road repairs and neighborly rerouting, had settled into silence—no complaints, Wilson said, just the hum of reliability and reliable taxes.
FILOTs replace ad valorem taxes with predictable fees, depreciating personal property while fixing real estate at cost, exemptions intact save the homestead sort; super fee elevates this for mega-projects, demanding county ordinances that weigh public gain—jobs, payroll, tax base—against forgone revenue, all enforceable by clawbacks if investment lags. Duke’s deal, with its 40-year horizon and clawback triggers (six percent retroactive if $600 million falls short by year eight; termination if statutory minima elude by year five), embodied this bargain: the county risks little pecuniary liability, pledging only credits from fees themselves, while the utility gambles on permits, construction, and the jet-engine turbines’ endurance.
The third and final reading of the ordinance before council Tuesday would authorize a super fee-in-lieu-of-tax deal with Duke Energy Carolinas and place the project within the Greenville-Anderson multi-county park structure, allowing it to draw special source credits and related incentives. County officials said the proposal reflects a modern natural-gas facility with far stronger pollution controls than older coal-fired plants, and they emphasized that Anderson already hosts two gas-fired generation facilities that have operated for more than 25 years.
At the last meeting, council’s debate was notably calmer than the scale of the project might suggest. Members approved the Duke ordinance unanimously after questioning the expected lifespan of the turbines and the amount of infrastructure work Duke is undertaking to reduce water demand, including an air-cooling system that staff said cost about $100 million and cut projected water use substantially.
The county framed the plant not only as an industrial investment but as a long-duration public asset. Staff projected a first-year community impact of $134 million and a 30-year community impact of $752 million, with the county’s total tax and park-fee returns estimated at about $702 million over the life of the agreement. Anderson School Dist. 3, where voters recently approved a referendum to build a new Crescent Middle School, would see great benefits from the plant, which is located in that district.
The special session opened with ritual nods to the calendar: Resolution 2026-015 proclaimed April Fair Housing Awareness Month, decrying discrimination in shelter on grounds of race, creed, or station; 2026-016 hailed Autism Acceptance Month, urging inclusion for those one in thirty-one South Carolina children touched by the spectrum; and a proclamation marked Child Abuse Prevention Month, saluting local homes like New Foundations and Calvary for sheltering the county’s vulnerable young. These were read into the record with the gravity of civic housekeeping, unanimous votes sealing them for the public weal.
Third readings are also on Tuesday’s agenda concerning airport hangar leases with Carolina Real Estate Consultants and Heartland Properties of New Ulm, which are ground agreements for new hangars to house aircraft at Anderson Regional Airport, and on an easement at the Sports Entertainment Center, deeding Duke Energy rights for power lines to a new storage shed, all bound for public hearings with three-minute citizen allotments
Council will consider, on first reading, a new Agricultural Advisory Board to bolster local farming interests.
