Jul. 30--SCE&G agreed to a new, long-term maintenance contract for its Jenkinsville nuclear plant with the Shaw Group and Westinghouse.

The contract, announced Wednesday, covers the existing reactor unit at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station as well as two new units the utility and its partner Santee Cooper plan to build.

The value of the contract was not announced.

The contract, an extension of a previous agreement, requires Baton Rouge, La.-based Shaw to provide maintenance, modification, refueling outage and design engineering services for the existing 966-megawatt reactor unit and the new units.

The new AP1000 units, each capable of generating 1,117 megawatts, will be designed by Pittsburgh-headquartered Westinghouse Electric Co.

Shaw will serve as the contractor for the new units, which are scheduled to go into service in 2016 and 2019 respectively.

South Carolina Gas & Electric Co.'s share of the estimated cash outlays total $5.3 billion for the plant costs and $646 million for building additional transmission infrastructure.

Cost of the new units is estimated to reach $9.8 billion. Investor-owned SCE&G, principal subsidiary of energy provider SCANA Corp., will cover 55 percent of the cost and state-owned Santee Cooper, based in Moncks Corner, will pay the remaining $4.4 billion.

V.C. Summer went into operation in 1984. The two utilities operate the plant under a similar arrangement.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper are pursuing a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate the new units. The federal agency could issue the permit in 2011.

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