Early this year Dominion Energy (D) went public with its intention to buy SCANA Corp (SCG) – the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G). The Richmond, Virginia-based energy company now moves closer to its planned $14.6 billion acquisition of SCANA as it received a green signal from the Georgia Public Service Commission.
Georgia becomes the first state to roll out their decision on the proposed merger. However, Georgia’s approval is just the start of a long road. The Dominion/SCANA deal needs to get an approval from SCANA shareholders, South Carolina and North Carolina regulators, nuclear regulatory commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Dominion hopes that the proposed merger will clear all the regulatory investigations and that the transaction will be completed later this year.
Dominion’s acquisition of SCANA is said to create one of the largest natural gas storage systems with a massive capacity of 1 trillion cubic feet. A state probe was initiated on this deal after lawmakers in South Carolina received fake emails supporting the deal. The fake emails were rolled out in the name of a few residents without their knowledge.
Dominion hopes that the proposed merger will clear all the regulatory investigations and that the transaction will be completed later this year
Dominion that is known to have close to 5 million customers believes that this deal would help increase their customer base and deliver energy to over 6.5 million customers. The deal will also help the combined company increase its presence in close to 18 states.
If the merger thrives, Dominion Energy has agreed to offer a dozen of incentives to the customers of the troubled utility. These include $1.3 billion cash payment to SCE&G customers and a 5 percent rate reduction. This incentive is aimed to offset the payments customers paid for the nuclear construction project that failed to take off. Dominion has also decided to write-off $1.7 billion in assets linked to the nuclear project. Hence, there is a huge support for this deal among South Carolina residents.