Bids to buy Santee Cooper were due last Monday.

How many bid and who they are may not be known until next month.

Lawmakers hired ICF International to solicit and review all proposals.

Over the last year, 4 utilities were rumored to be Santee Cooper buyers.

Making the deal attractive for state officials is ridding themselves of $4 billion in debt Santee Cooper owes as part of its partnership in SCANA’s failed $9 billion nuclear reactor project.

Florida’s NextEra Energy and Greenville’s Pacolet Mil-liken were willing to offer $10 billion each to buy the taxpayer-owned utility that supplies power to Lexington County Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative members, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

North Carolina’s Duke Energy and Virginia’s Dominion Energy made no specific offers but were rumored to be potential buyers.

A 5th utility, a Post and Courier source said, wanted to manage and possibly buy Santee Cooper’s electric generation, transmission and distribution for almost 2 million members of the state’s 20 electric coops.

Even the high bidder might not win approval, The State newspaper reported.

A sale needs state lawmaker approval, but senators told The State they are skeptical that selling is best.

Senators said they don’t want a long, complicated Santee Cooper debate to bog down their top priority, public school reform.

Senators may decide to:

• Hire another utility to manage Santee Cooper.

• Replace Santee Cooper management to avoid more costly mistakes.

“I don’t believe the votes are there to sell Santee Cooper,” Minority Leader Nikki Setzler of West Columbia told reporters last month.

Majority Leader Shane Massey who also represents Lexington County agreed.

“It’s a big political lift,” he said. “You’re going to have some folks that are going to defend Santee Cooper, no matter what they do.

“You’re going to have others who are going to want to sell Santee Cooper no matter how they perform.”

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has led the push to sell Santee Cooper, saying is the only way to pay off the utility’s nuclear debt without charging its customers higher rates.

The average coop member now pays about $5.35 monthly for the nuclear failure. Without reform or a sale, Mid-Carolina members could pay $13.33 monthly, The State estimated.

Co-op members may pay $6,200 for the project over the next 40 years.

The co-ops are suing San-tee Cooper to avoid paying for its share of the failure.

Lawmakers hesitate to sell due to Santee Cooper’s rates which are far lower than SC Electric & Gas charges, its role in the economic development and its management of lakes Marion and Moultrie.