Dominion Energy, SCANA announce official completion of merger

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Virginia-based Dominion Energy and SCANA Corporation, the parent company of South Carolina Electric and Gas announced Wednesday morning that they have officially completed their proposed merger.

The Public Service Commission approved the merger in mid-December after more than a month of hearings.

The deal approved by commissioners cuts the average customer’s bill by approximately $22 per month. But the average SCE&G customer will not receive a check for $1,000, which was proposed earlier. Instead, customers will be paying for the failure of the project over the next 20 years. Since that V.C. Summer expansion was abandoned, ratepayers have been footing the bill for the multi-billion-dollar costs with surcharges on their statements.

Dominion officials say the typical SCE&G residential electric customer will pay approximately $125 per month. The official transaction value of the merger was $6.8 billion.

“Putting into effect bills below the temporary rates and keeping residential, commercial and industrial electric bills lower and competitive with neighboring states will aid South Carolina in its economic development efforts and ensure that the state has a reliable energy supply to fuel growth and power the state’s homes and businesses,” Dominion CEO Tom Farrell said.

Dominion Energy will also provide bill credits of $2.45 million over three years to SCE&G’s 370,000 gas utility customers. Dominion also says it has committed to freezing base rates for SCE&G electric customers at current until Jan. 1, 2021.

The company now serves 3.3 million electric customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and 3.3 million natural gas utility customer accounts in Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.