When the S.C. General Assembly returns to session in January, the 170 members will again confront the challenge of trying to ensure the state’s future energy needs are met.

The challenge is clear: South Carolina’s population and economic sector is growing fast.

It's growing so fast that state leaders and utility executives are concerned that the need for energy may outpace the utilities’ ability to generate enough electricity to meet demand.

Mike Callahan, senior vice president for Duke Energy, recently told a special state Senate committee, which is trying to come to grips with the issue, that Duke as well as other utilities are at a critical point in planning for a reliable energy future.

“Duke Energy needs to build and enable large amounts of energy quickly to keep up with the success our state is seeing in economic development and growth," he said. "We need to do this at the same time we are retiring generation that is reaching the end of its economic life."

While the Legislature’s focus is on the future, the collapse of the V.C. Summer nuclear project in Fairfield County back in 2017 lingers.

That’s when two new nuclear generating stations under construction in Jenkinsville were abandoned, after state-owned utility Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy’s predecessor — SCANA Corp. — walked away from the roughly $9 billion project, passing along parts of the bill to their customers.

Now Dominion and Santee Cooper want to partner again on a huge, new natural gas plant in Colleton County.

As a state-owned utility, Santee Cooper needs the Legislature's blessing to enter into the partnership with Dominion.

While the project is expected to be approved, Sen. Shane Massey, R –Edgefield, who chairs the Senate panel handling energy matters, said there are concerns about customers being asked to pick up much of the cost of a new gas plant while still paying for the abandoned nuclear project.

“If we’re still looking at a scenario where Dominion and Santee Cooper customers are going to be paying for two power plants in the same way we’ve always done things, then we’re going to have some problems with that,” Massey said.

To the surprise of many, the need for more energy has led to renewed interest in the V.C. Summer site some 30 miles north of Columbia.

State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, a member of the Senate energy panel, suggested that at least looking for a possible new operator for the site would be prudent.

“I don’t understand the sense of reluctance that there is," he said. "Maybe it’s a hangover from 2017, and the fact that we got screwed, and maybe we’re still upset about that. But we need to be clear-eyed about this."

Davis added that a preliminary analysis conducted by the S.C. Nuclear Advisory Council found that one of the two abandoned reactors might be still usable in the future.

Dominion and Santee Cooper still own the Fairfield County nuclear site, but so far haven’t publicly expressed any interest in reviving the project.

The three major utilities that serve South Carolina say large commercial users, such as data centers, are helping to drive the increased demand for electricity.

Some senators seem leery of the utilities building new generation to meet the demands for data centers, which will have to be paid for by all of their ratepayers including residential and other industrial customers.

Frank Knapp, president of the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce, told the Senate panel that the owners of data centers, which he calls “energy hogs,” should pay for their share of producing energy they use.

A new Senate energy bill is expected to be ready for debate in January, when the new legislative session starts. The S.C. House passed a similar measure this year , but the Senate was unable to consider it before heading home in May.