As Santee Cooper took on billions in nuclear debt, it donated millions of dollars.

Its beneficiaries were corporations, local officials and economic developers.

Santee Cooper supplies electricity to about 2 million people in the state including Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative in Lexington County.

About $5 of an average home owner’s monthly bill of $118 for 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity is for the failed nuclear project.

From August 2010 to April 2018, the taxpayer-owned utility gave at least $121 million in grants and no-interest and low-interest loans for projects statewide.

In 2015, it gave $3 million to buy land in Berkeley County for the new Volvo plant and another $1.3 million in 2016 for Volvo infrastructure improvements.

A $15 million, low-interest loan and a $5 million grant in 2017 helped develop the Dillon Inland Port, owned and operated by the S.C. Ports Authority.

• A $2.25 million grant in 2017 through the “South Carolina Power Team” – an economic development organization representing the state’s 20 electric cooperatives helped buy property for Samsung for its appliance manufacturing plant in Newberry County.

The Moncks Corner-based utility also has a grant program for local governments and economic development groups for furniture, computers, office equipment, advertising and marketing, according to records obtained under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.

Santee Cooper launched a public relations blitz this year to defend its economic development activities.

“Some are falsely claiming that our current debt should dictate that we stop financially supporting economic development activity,” Santee Cooper said on its website.

In 2018, Santee Cooper’s overall debt load was at least $15.6 billion including interest, to be paid back over 40 years.

That includes about $4.3 billion in bonds sold to finance the construction of two nuclear reactors since abandoned with its partner, SC Electric & Gas.

The Public Service Commission gave SCE&G 9 electric rate hikes to cover skyrocketing nuclear costs under a 2007 state law quietly passed by the Legislature.