Mid-Carolina Electric and SC Electric & Gas customers are in for a surprise.
The Public Service Commission-approved 18% in nuclear surcharges have been paying for SCE&G executives’ hefty bonuses.
Among these is a $1.8 million consulting agreement for former SCANA CEO William Timmerman.
He was paid $1.8 million starting the day after he retired as a consultant on the utility’s failed nuclear construction project, The State newspaper reported.
What the Lexington County-based holding company paid him to do isn’t clear.
SCANA has provided no records of what he did for the money, audit manager Kelvin Major of the Office of Regulatory Staff said.
Timmerman retired in 2011 and began earning $360,000 a year for 5 years.
Timmerman’s fee was in with such nuclear-related charges as jet trips, alcohol and gift cards that state auditors called illegitimate.
SCE&G ratepayers and cooperative members who get power from Santee Cooper will have to pay most of the $1.8 million in the 2 utilities’ nuclear partnership.
The state’s 20 electric co-ops buy Santee Cooper electricity and pay 70% of costs.
The co-ops did not know they would pay Timmerman, Mike Couick, CEO of the co-op trade group said.
“But we also were not aware that Santee Cooper was paying the (nuclear-related) bonuses for SCANA executives,” he told The State’s reporter Avery Wilks.
The Office of Regulatory Staff, a state watchdog, wants the PSC to bar SCE&G from charging its 727,000 ratepayers for the $990,000 it paid Timmerman.
ORS auditor Kelvin Major said, “The company was unable to provide any of the requested documentation.” 
SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower said the Timmerman agreement was disclosed to the Security and Exchanges Commission in a May 2011 filing.
Mid-Carolina members, with other customers of Santee Cooper, has helped pay Timmerman $810,000.
Timmerman is on the board of Pacolet Milliken, a Greenville company that may buy Santee Cooper.
 Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said, “There may be no documents reflecting Mr. Timmerman’s work product, but there’s certainly evidence of his work product, which is a $9 billion hole on the ground.”
Massey, who represents western Lexington County voters and co-chaired the Senate committee that investigated the nuclear failure said, “They paid him $1.8 million to consult on something, and it failed.”
Rep. Russell Ott who represents southern Lexington County voters said, “In light of everything that has taken place over the past year and a half, it’s just another example of shadiness.
“If everything is ... completely transparent, then certainly a company like SCANA would have had the documentation to show what he was doing.”