Senator King urges regulators to block NextEra-Dominion merger

U.S. Senator Angus King urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 29 to block NextEra Energy's $66.8 billion bid for Dominion Energy, arguing that the merger would put too much of the regional grid and too many customers under one corporate roof. King said the combined company would have a scale and market reach large enough to affect households and businesses across the Southeast.

The dispute comes as electricity demand is rising again after nearly two decades of relative stagnation. Virginia's sales growth is being driven largely by data centers, electric-vehicle adoption and building electrification, and Dominion sits in the middle of the country's largest concentration of data centers.

NextEra and Dominion announced the definitive all-stock deal on May 18. Dominion shareholders would receive 0.8138 NextEra shares for each Dominion share, and the combined business would serve about 10 million customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The merged company would own 110 gigawatts of generation capacity, be more than 80% regulated, and become the world's largest regulated electric utility business by market capitalization. The enterprise value was about $420 billion and the market capitalization was roughly $249 billion.

King argued that a single company controlling merchant generation, regulated generation, transmission and load-pocket exposure would have strong incentives to shape regional markets in its own favor. He also pointed to the companies' combined 110 gigawatts of generating capacity, saying the merged utility would be the biggest holder of natural gas-fired power and the second-largest nuclear operator in the country.

In Virginia, regulators have already moved to make sure data centers pay separate rates tied to their own costs rather than shifting expenses to other customers. The Virginia State Corporation Commission's GS-5 rate class is designed to prevent cost shifting, and data centers must take and pay for electric service for at least 14 years. NextEra has promised $2.25 billion in bill credits over two years after closing for Dominion customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.