NextEra and Dominion Energy felt it necessary to offer more benefits this week to Virginia ratepayers and the state’s economy to persuade its regulatory agency to approve the proposed merger of the two companies.

In South Carolina, the story couldn’t be more different.

Knapp

In a Sept. 14 commentary in The Washington Post, the CEOs of the two utilities claimed its “stronger package of benefits” resulted from months of meetings with Dominion’s Virginia customers.

But the real reason for the new benefits offer was revealed in the utilities’ press release from the same day. The upgrade was  a “direct response to feedback from policymakers and other stakeholders.”

In Virginia, there has been a growing bipartisan drumbeat among public officials against the merger, the turnaround speed of the regulatory process and the need for more concessions from NextEra. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has intervened in the merger process saying that she is “deeply skeptical about whether selling our primary state-regulated utility to an out-of-state company is good for the commonwealth.” 

A bipartisan group of Virginia state lawmakers has called for a special legislative session to review the merger and extend the six-month timeline for the regulatory body to make a decision.  Virginia’s Speaker of the House has given four merger demands to NextEra to benefit the state saying, “I don’t want their promises. I want their action. I’m watching.”

So, what are the enhanced benefits NextEra and Dominion are now offering Virginia?

  • Extending the original $10 monthly bill credits from two years to four years by asking “data centers to transfer their share of bill credits to residential customers.”
  • A 50% increase ($100 million) in the “Dominion Energy’s shareholder-funded low-income financial assistance program” through 2038.
  • $100 million in workforce development.
  • Up to $1 billion for a five-year “Virginia Supplier Program for contractors, suppliers and service providers doing business in Virginia.”
  • Keeping Dominion employee numbers the same for at least five years.
  • Adding “600 new NextEra Energy jobs in Virginia.”

But while this is good for Virginia, these promised, bigger benefits have not been publicly offered to South Carolina and our Dominion ratepayers?  

Why not?

The answer is that while we have several organizations that publicly oppose the merger, are calling for more NextEra concessions or at least want a longer time for the process; we don’t have the strong, public voice from our elected officials that is circulating in Virginia.  

While those Virginia public officials are roaring and demanding more from NextEra, only crickets are publicly heard in South Carolina.

The state’s two powerful legislators who have intervened in our regulatory merger process –  the president of the Senate and speaker of the House – have not issued strong demands or concerns as done by Virginia’s governor and House speaker. Instead, they have officially sided with the NextEra/Dominion request for a six-month regulatory process, actions that have implicitly told our Public Service Commission of their support for the utilities.  

In fact, our governor, Henry McMaster, has been silent on the merger as have our legislators.

While the old saying, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get” is good advice for our legislature, South Carolina might still benefit from all the heavy lifting going on in Virginia. 

Should NextEra and Dominion offer the same new benefits to South Carolina, we should say thanks and then ask for more using those concessions as “starting points for getting more for our ratepayers” and state.

But if our Public Service Commission approves the NextEra/Dominion merger – and I am not suggesting that it should – here are some suggestions for going beyond the new benefits offered to Virginia:

  • Establish much higher targets for customer energy savings from energy efficiency programs.
  • Agree to a specific commitment from the utility to acquire much higher levels of S.C.-produced renewable energy combined with battery storage.
  • Adopt a large load tariff to ensure that data centers pay for their own energy needs.
  •  Commit to holding the construction budget for the new Dominion/Santee Cooper gas plant at Canadys to the $5 billion as the application stated to protect ratepayers.  
  • Set firm and enforceable dates for closing coal plants.
  • Agree to limit NextEra’s spending to influence elected officials.
  • Require every existing and new data center to have a kill switch that is controlled at the local level by a community-based organization empowered to literally pull a data center offline and off the electricity grid if tech warnings of rogue AI agents independently taking actions to harm humans come true.

To our state’s elected officials: NextEra and Dominion desperately want the merger.  Raise your voices to demand more benefits for South Carolina.

Frank Knapp is the president, CEO and co-founder of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.

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