A new study says an aggressive strategy to replace aging equipment with more energy efficient products throughout the South would offset the need for additional power from coal-fired power plants in the region through 2020.

Georgia Power Company and Georgia Electric Membership Corporation say less than 30,000 Georgians remain without power after severe thunderstorms and high winds moved through the state.

According to Aiken Electric Cooperative, electric service to some Aiken Electric Cooperative members in the northeast Aiken area is currently out due to a vehicular accident that broke two cooperative service poles.

About 40,000 people in northwestern South Carolina are still without electric power as workers scramble to restore service after the winter storm that dumped up to 10 inches of snow on the state.

Utilities around New England and in upstate New York now say more than a million homes and businesses are without power after an ice storm swept through the region.

South Carolina utility regulators will hold a series of public hearings on a proposal to build the state’s first two nuclear reactors in decades. South Carolina Electric & Gas is asking regulators for permission to begin charging customers higher rates now for its part of the $10 billion for the reactors it will build and operate with the state-owned utility Santee Cooper.