North Carolina commission latest to approve utility merger

The North Carolina Utilities Commission has approved the proposed merger of troubled South Carolina utility SCANA with Dominion Energy.

The utilities announced the commission’s approval in a news release Monday. The merger remains contingent upon approval from the Public Service Commission of South Carolina.

Previously, the merger had received approval from a number of agencies, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which approved the indirect transfer of the operating license for the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station from SCANA subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. to the Virginia-based company.

SCANA needed a buyer after spending $5 billion on a pair of reactors abandoned a year ago at V.C. Summer, costing thousands of jobs. The move spawned more than a dozen lawsuits and followed the bankruptcy of lead contractor Westinghouse.