Tenants and Dominion Energy customers rallied at the company’s offices Nov. 7 to demand a halt to its proposed sale to Florida-based NextEra Energy, according to a news release published by Holy City Sinner. The South Carolina Tenant Union held a statewide gathering in North Charleston that weekend, the release said.

The S.C. Public Service Commission will take customer testimony Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Lonnie Hamilton III Public Services Building in North Charleston.

Tenant organizers want the deal rejected. The state agency that represents the public interest in utility cases has taken a narrower position.

“NextEra has a track record of bad business practices, aggressive disconnections, and rate increases that place a heavy burden on South Carolinians,” Kiana Nicole, a member of the Tri-County Tenant Union, told the crowd, according to the release.

Another member, Toyo Ubaldo, said NextEra’s Florida utility cut off customers’ power 1.23 million times in one year, more than double Dominion’s South Carolina rate. The release did not cite a source for that figure, and Charleston Business Report could not confirm it. The release included no response from NextEra or Dominion.

The deal

NextEra and Dominion announced the all-stock merger May 18. Dominion shareholders would receive 0.8138 NextEra shares for each share they own, plus a $360 million cash payment split among them, and would hold about 25.5% of the combined company, according to the companies’ announcement, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Live 5 and other news outlets have valued the deal at $67 billion.

The companies expect to close in the second half of 2027 if regulators in South Carolina, Virginia and North Carolina and federal agencies sign off. Dominion Energy South Carolina would keep its name and its headquarters in Cayce, the companies said.

In their petition to the commission, the companies said the combined company’s size would expand its purchasing power and could lower its borrowing costs on the large investments ahead, benefits they said would reach customers over the longer term.

What South Carolina is offered

The companies have pledged $2.25 billion in bill credits across the three Dominion states over two years. South Carolina’s electric customers would get about $387 million of that, or 17%, based on their share of 2025 electricity sales, and natural gas customers would get $5 million, according to the Office of Regulatory Staff.

A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month would see about $10 a month off, according to testimony from the S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs.

Virginia has since been offered more. In September, the companies extended that state’s residential credits to four years and added $100 million for low-income energy assistance and $100 million for workforce development, along with 600 new jobs and a new office tower in Richmond, according to Regulatory Staff testimony and NextEra’s Nov. 3 announcement.

“None of these things apply to South Carolina, and you can only ask yourself, what is that about?” Frank Knapp Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, told Live 5 in September.

NextEra CEO John Ketchum told legislators Oct. 15 that the two-year term could move. “We recognize that there’s a different approach being taken in Virginia. We’re open to discussions on that here in South Carolina,” he said, WRDW reported.

What the regulators’ staff wants

The Office of Regulatory Staff did not ask the commission to reject the deal in testimony filed Oct. 28. It asked for conditions.

“Should the Commission determine the Merger is in the public interest, the approval of the proposed Merger must include sufficient safeguards to ensure South Carolina is not harmed and in fact benefits from the Merger,” wrote Dawn Hipp, a witness for the agency.

The agency wants the residential credit extended to four years, paid entirely by shareholders. It also wants a “most favored nations” clause requiring the companies to give South Carolina customers comparable treatment if they grant better terms elsewhere. The companies have not agreed to one, Hipp testified.

Other conditions would cap the corporate costs that can be passed to Dominion’s South Carolina customers at 2026 levels and bar recovery of costs tied to the Richmond tower and the Virginia jobs.

The companies told the agency each state has unique needs and priorities and that they do not plan to file similar commitments here, according to the testimony.

A tougher line from Consumer Affairs

A witness for the Department of Consumer Affairs, Michael Deupree, went further, recommending the commission “reject the proposed merger as it is currently proposed.”

If the commission approves it anyway, he said, the companies should freeze base rates for three years after closing and NextEra should put $500 million of shareholder money toward what customers still owe on the abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear expansion. He also recommended raising the average South Carolina residential credit to $12.79 a month, the level proposed for North Carolina.

What comes next

After the North Charleston session, the commission will hear customers Nov. 17 in Columbia and Dec. 8 at its Columbia offices, where people can also testify virtually. AARP South Carolina says the preregistration deadline for North Charleston is Nov. 9.

The companies’ rebuttal testimony is due Nov. 18. A hearing is set for Dec. 8, and the commission’s final order is expected by Jan. 29, 2027, according to the schedule it adopted in August.