The City of Cayce and Dominion Energy continue to negotiate about the terms under which the utility reaches customers in the city.

Up until November, the city had a franchise agreement with Dominion for the amount the utility pays the city to use Cayce land to reach its customers. Power lines and power poles have to go somewhere, and that’s frequently on land owned by local governments, which utilities pay to use their land.

With negotiations about a new agreement ongoing, City Council has been considering an ordinance to enact a default franchise fee. It’s already passed first reading, but on June 7, council deferred second reading for a fifth time, rescheduling the vote for its next meeting on June 22. The agenda for the June 7 meeting included “discussion of Dominion’s proposed franchise agreement” as one of the items for executive session.

When council passed first reading on the ordinance to instate a default franchise fee, which would be paid by utilities using city land in absence of a separate franchise agreement, Dominion sent the city a letter stating, among other things, that should it be passed, industrial customers, previously exempt from the 5% fee the utility charges other customers to recoup the franchise fee paid to the city, would have that fee added on to their bills.

Industrial businesses that operate in Cayce, such as CMC Steel South Carolina and Steel Hands Brewing, voiced their displeasure at the prospect of this additional fee and pushed council to reconsider.

Cayce City Manager Tracy Hegler told the Chronicle in late-May that the city has continued to have meetings with Dominion and they are getting closer to reaching an agreement.

A sticking point for the city when negotiations to extend the previous agreement broke down was the 30-year term it said Dominion was seeking. Hegler said they have since settled on a slightly lower term of about 20 years.

“With any contract negotiation, you start out with a high number of differences and then you start to work your way in,” she said.

According to Dominion Media Relations Manager Rhonda Maree O’Banion, the default fee laid out in the ordinance would still trigger the 5% fee for industrial customers.

“If the City of Cayce enacts the default fee as presently drafted, Dominion Energy would be required to assess the 5% franchise fee to industrial customers moving forward,” she told the Chronicle in late-May. “This could change if a new franchise agreement is reached that does not include sales to industrial customers in the calculation of the franchise fee.”

O’Banion declined to discuss how the negotiations with Cayce compare to those with other municipalities, but she confirmed that the two parties have continued to talk.

“Dominion Energy has met with the City of Cayce at least two times since March, and we believe progress is being made,” she said.

Hegler emphasized that if council passes the ordinance establishing the default fee, that doesn’t close the door to further negotiations with Dominion.

“It’s simply in place, if it’s in place, if there is not [a separate] agreement,” she said, “so it could even be enacted, but not have enforcement, if there is an ultimate agreement at the end.”