Although it lacks fossil fuel resources, South Carolina produces more electricity than it consumes. Installed electric capacity (utility and nonutility) totaled 18.2 million kW in 1999, when power production reached 90.3 billion kWh. About 56% of electric output came from nuclear reactors, 40% from coal-fired plants, 1% from hydropower, and 3% from other sources. Major power suppliers are six private companies and the state-owned Public Service Authority, known as Santee-Cooper. Gas utilities sold 183.5 million cu ft (5.2 million cu m) of natural gas—all of it imported—in 2001. In 2000, South Carolina's total per capita energy consumption was 368 million Btu (92.7 million kcal), ranking it 21st among the 50 states.
South Carolina is heavily engaged in nuclear energy. It is the nation's 3rd-largest generator of nuclear power. As of 2001, the state had seven nuclear reactors in operation, two at the Catawba plant (the state's largest), three at the Oconee facility near Greenville, one at the H. B. Robinson plant near Hartsville, and one at the Virgil C. Summer plant near Jenkinsville. The vast Savannah River plant in Aiken County produces most of the plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons; Chem-Nuclear Systems in Barnwell County stores about half of the country's low-level nuclear wastes; and a Westinghouse plant in Richland County makes fuel assemblies for nuclear reactors.