Why developers come here
South Carolina offers the lowest entry threshold for a data center tax exemption in the Southeast, three utilities with headroom outside the Northern Virginia and Atlanta queues, and cheap rural land along I-26, I-77, and I-85. Google has been in Berkeley County since 2007 and is now building in Dorchester County; Meta is building a 200 MW campus in Aiken County; QTS entered York County; and gas-fired “behind the meter” campuses have been proposed in Spartanburg and Colleton counties.
Industrial power averaged 7.85 cents per kWh through June 2026 per EIA, up from 6.99 cents a year earlier, the sharpest increase among the five Southeast states covered here. That rise, plus the 2024 Dominion-Google discount contract, is why cost allocation became the central political question in 2025 and 2026.
Incentives
- Sales and use tax exemption under S.C. Code 12-36-2120(79) on computers, computer equipment, software, and electricity used at a qualifying data center. The facility must be certified by the Department of Commerce, invest at least $50 million in real or personal property at a single facility over five years (or $75 million combined across tenants), create at least 25 full-time jobs within five years paying at least 150 percent of the state or county per capita income, and hold the jobs for three years. The Department of Revenue reported the exemption cost $828 million in fiscal 2025-26 across seven companies, up from under $8 million four years earlier.
- 2026 session outcome. S. 867, the Data Center Development Act, would have created statewide siting standards for water, noise, and buffers and required PSC approval of rate agreements; S. 902 would have required a PSC certificate before operation; H. 5286 and H. 5526 proposed a statewide moratorium to 2028. None passed. The Senate instead attached budget provisos: data centers using 3 million gallons a month or more must report water use to the Department of Environmental Services by January 31, 2027 or face $10,000 a day penalties; the Department of Revenue must report exemption totals to budget writers; and the Department of Commerce may not use state funds to recruit or incentivize data centers this fiscal year. A one-year suspension of the exemption failed. Expect reform bills to return in 2027.
- Fee in lieu of taxes (FILOT) is the local property tax tool. Counties can cut the assessment ratio from 10.5 percent to as low as 6 percent and lock the millage for up to 30 years for projects investing as little as $2.5 million. Some councils have now declined FILOTs for data centers; TigerDC withdrew a project after one county refused.
Power
South Carolina is not in an ISO. Dominion Energy South Carolina serves the Midlands and Lowcountry, Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress serve the Upstate and Pee Dee, and state-owned Santee Cooper serves the coast directly and supplies the 20 electric cooperatives through Central Electric Power Cooperative. The Public Service Commission regulates Dominion and Duke; Santee Cooper’s board sets its own rates.
Santee Cooper moved first. In April 2025 its board adopted an experimental large-load rate for customers of 50 MW or more: 15-year contracts, higher charges in peak periods, and a requirement to ramp to full contracted load within three years. On May 27, 2026 Duke petitioned the PSC to open a generic docket (2026-138-E) on new loads of 50 MW or more, and the PSC’s July 2, 2026 order in Dominion’s rate case had Dominion join that docket rather than settle contract terms, collateral, and exit provisions on its own. As of this review no statewide tariff had issued, so terms remain negotiated. Utilities told legislators in early 2026 that data center inquiries had slowed from the 2024 peak.
Water is the other issue. The state has no groundwater withdrawal permitting in much of the coastal plain, which is why the water-reporting proviso and the Colleton fight near the ACE Basin have drawn attention. Several counties now require closed-loop or air cooling in their ordinances.
Where the projects are
Berkeley and Dorchester counties near Charleston (Google), Aiken County (Meta), York and Cherokee counties in the Upstate along I-85 (QTS; Cielo Digital’s proposed $2.1 billion campus near Gaffney), Spartanburg County (NorthMark’s gas-powered 450 MW campus), and Colleton County in the Lowcountry. Tracked projects include Google’s Dorchester County campuses at Ridgeville and St. George and the Eagle Rock Partners gigawatt proposal in Colleton County.
Local politics
Colleton County is the test case. An 860-acre gigawatt campus proposal near the headwaters of the ACE Basin filled an auditorium in December 2025, drew a lawsuit from two residents in January 2026 over the zoning change that enabled it, and prompted a six-month moratorium in July 2026. On September 14, 2026 County Council unanimously approved a Digital Infrastructure Overlay District that allows data centers across much of the rural county with a 300-acre minimum, 200-foot buffers, a 65 decibel cap, and closed-loop or air cooling, despite a 5,000-signature petition. Residents cite water, permanent loss of farmland and timberland, noise, and pipelines.
Nine counties had sought or adopted temporary moratoria by mid-2026 according to regional press. In Spartanburg, citizen groups and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy asked the PSC to rule that a 450 MW gas plant serving a data center needs a siting certificate. On the other side, county councils in Aiken, Berkeley, Dorchester, and York have approved projects for the tax base and jobs, and Upstate senators defended the exemption in the 2026 debate as a matter of predictability for companies that already committed.
What a landowner should know
Projects here range from 100 acres for a single hyperscale building to 800 acres or more for gas-powered campuses. Proximity to a Dominion, Duke, or Santee Cooper 230 kV line matters, and so does which utility serves the parcel, because contract terms differ and only Santee Cooper has a published large-load rate. Option agreements are the norm; ask what utility studies are done and whether the developer intends on-site generation, which now draws PSC and public scrutiny.
Check whether the county has a moratorium, an overlay district, or a FILOT policy on data centers, and whether it requires closed-loop cooling. The state contact is the South Carolina Department of Commerce, which certifies qualifying data centers; the county economic development office negotiates the FILOT. Water-use reporting begins in January 2027 and will be public.