Santee Cooper donates electric vehicle charging station to Loris

A spot to charge electric vehicles was unveiled Thursday in Loris thanks to Santee Cooper.

Located on Meeting Street in downtown across from the Brick Warehouse, the station was installed as part of Santee Cooper’s initiative to donate charging stations to locations around the county.

“We hope the charger will be a convenience for Loris citizens, but also hope it will drive in tourists who need to charge up and can unplug at one of the quaint downtown restaurants,” said Tracy Vreeland, spokesperson with Santee Cooper.

The company had donated EV chargers throughout the Grand Strand, but the vendor never kept up with the stations, Vreeland said.

“So we recently replaced most of them now that EVs are much more popular,” she said. “We didn’t want to leave out the City of Loris, so we donated one to the city.”

The city will pay for the usage on the charger, Vreeland said.

“I’m excited to partner with Santee Cooper on this project,” Loris Mayor Todd Harrelson said, adding the utility company is “always there” whenever the city needs assistance.

Santee Cooper has donated nine across its coverage area, including two off Fourth Avenue in Conway, two at the Horry County Library, two at Coastal Carolina University, one at Horry-Georgetown Technical College and another in Moncks Corner, Vreeland said.