Seneca to negotiate anew

Seneca’s mayor and council are being told it’s time to start to negotiate a new wholesale electric contract for the city. The negotiations determine how much Seneca will pay for its future electric power supply and, in the end, how much its retail customers will also pay. The current contract, with the Southern Company, expires in June next year, and city utilities superintendent Bob Faires says five companies are interested. City Administrator Greg Dietterick told the mayor and council that an executive session will be needed as part of the negotiations. Mayor Dan Alexander says a change in the law in the late 1990s allowed Seneca and other retail providers an open market to secure their electric power supply. And Dietterick says Seneca is the only South Carolina city that takes advantage of that open market.