With the COVID-19 virus causing disruption in South Carolina, the Public Service Commission elected to reschedule their public night hearing in Docket No. 2019-281-S from March 12th to March 19th. The PSC postponed this meeting in order to gather more information on the rapidly-evolving situation involving the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 and to put in place technological updates to ensure the safety and security of meeting attendees. Instead of a traditional night hearing, which gathers dozens and sometimes hundreds of people together in one space, this week’s public night hearing will be a “virtual hearing.” What this means for you: if you’re interested in speaking at this night hearing, you’ll call in to the following number:
803-896-2639
Until 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 18th, consumers must call this number and leave their name, physical address, and telephone number to be pre-registered to testify. Once you’re registered, you’ll be able to call in to the conference line at 888.612.1053 on Thursday afternoon and will be queued to speak in the order you signed up in. When it’s your turn to talk, you can think speak to Commissioners for up to three minutes—everything else about the public night hearing will be unchanged from a usual night hearing. If you need a refresher on that process, please review the PSC’s guide at www.bit.ly/PSCHearingsGuide.
We’ll be broadcasting, as we do all meetings, hearings, and briefings, a livestream through our partnership with SCETV at this link. If you’re just interested in listening along to the meeting, you can also call 800.410.4177.
We appreciate your patience as we test out this new capability—the safety of the public is our first concern, and moving to a virtual platform allows us to ensure that safety while still making sure we heard from those affected by ongoing issues in the utility economy of our state.
For more information, please contact the PSC at 803.896.5100 and follow SC Utility Consumer on Twitter and Facebook for important updates. You can also follow DHEC’s COVID-19 monitoring site at this link to receive the most comprehensive and current information on this outbreak.