COLUMBIA - State Senate hearings on the future of Santee Cooper and how it should be operated begin today at 6 p.m. in Room 318 of the Wall Building at Coastal Carolina University.

The second round will be at 6 p.m. Monday at the Waccamaw Higher Education Center in Litchfield.

Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, is chairman of a subcommittee assigned to study issues involving the state-owned electric utility and bills that have been filed on how it should be governed.

"Santee Cooper has worked well for 60 years," he said. Recent events, including Gov. Mark Sanford's firing of the utility's board chairman and talk of privatizing the agency or taking more revenue from it, have created uncertainty, he said.

The utility provides electricity directly or indirectly to most of Horry and Georgetown counties and to the state's electric co-operatives. It doesn't get state funds but provides 1 percent of its revenue to the state yearly, about $10 million.

Rankin said the subcommittee wants to hear from ratepayers: homeowners and those in the business community who use significant amounts of power.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce is asking members to attend, according to a news release.

Rankin said the hearings will not focus specifically on the bills the subcommittee will consider but that information gleaned in the meetings will be used when the measures are taken up.

Sanford's spokesman, Will Folks, said he did not know whether anyone from the governor's office would attend and that Sanford hopes the hearings focus on making the agency more efficient.