North Carolina Utilities Commission approves proposed Dominion Energy-SCANA merger

The North Carolina Utilities Commission recently approved the proposed combination of Dominion Energy, Inc. and SCANA Corporation.

The approval is the sixth of seven approvals necessary to complete the merger.

SCANA’s shareholders, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Georgia Public Service Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have already approved the merger. The Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the 30-day waiting period under the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

The merger is contingent on approval from the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, which has been holding evidentiary hearings since Nov. 1. A decision is expected by Dec. 21.

If the merger is completed as expected, the combined company would serve approximately 6.5 million regulated customer accounts, have an electric generating portfolio of about 33,000 megawatts and have roughly 93,600 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines. The combined company’s natural gas pipeline network would total 106,400 miles. It would also operate natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of capacity.