Dominion Energy to buy SCANA utility in $7.9B deal

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Shareholders of SCANA agreed Tuesday to sell the South Carolina utility to Virginia-based Dominion Energy, which has agreed to swallow billions of dollars in debt from the company’s failed nuclear construction project and other operations.

The deal gives Dominion — already one of the nation’s largest utility companies — more of a foothold in South Carolina. The Richmond company already operates a pair of solar farms in the state, as well as gas pipelines bought from SCANA in years past.

SCANA has about 1.6 million electric and natural gas residential and business accounts in the Carolinas.

The combined company would operate in 18 states, providing energy to about 6.5 million regulated customer accounts.

SCANA suddenly needed a buyer after spending $5 billion to plan and build a pair of reac- tors, a project abandoned a year ago Tuesday at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County. SCANA has been reeling since the debacle, which left thousands jobless. The project’s co-owner, state-owned utility Santee Cooper, also has been wrestling with how to shoulder its stake in the failure.

The failure spawned lawsuits from irate ratepayers alleging company officials knew the project was doomed but lied about its viabilit y. St ate and federal authorities are also investigating possible wrongdoing on behalf of top SCANA executives, some of whom have departed the company in the past year.

In the deal, Dominion is offering more than $1 billion in rebates to customers of SCANA subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., as well as rate cuts of about 7 percent, as well as a promise not to raise rates for three years. Dominion values its purchase at about $7.9 billion, with an additional $6.7 billion in assumed debt.