NextEra Energy Proposes $67 Billion Merger With Dominion Energy

NextEra Energy announced a $67 billion all-stock merger with Dominion Energy on Monday morning. U.S. utility by market value and combine NextEra's national reach with Dominion's position as the local utility for the world's largest concentration of data centers in northern Virginia.

U.S. utility sector in overall electricity generation, natural gas generation, and renewables. It would rank second in nuclear power generating capacity and in the number of regulated utility customers, trailing only Exelon Corp. of Chicago in both categories.

5 percent. The company would retain the NextEra Energy name after the transaction closes. NextEra CEO John W. Robert M. Blue, Dominion's current CEO, would become CEO for regulated utilities. The parties said they expect regulatory approvals to take 12 to 18 months. The deal remains contingent on state and federal regulatory approval.

Company officials said the merger creates a pipeline of 130 gigawatts of demand from data centers. They also said the combined company could more than double generation capacity to 225 gigawatts by 2032. The transaction would give NextEra access to Virginia's policy environment for building grid infrastructure and its strong profit margins in the data center market.

25 billion in bill credits for Dominion customers spread over two years. Company officials said the agreement will create economies of scale that benefit ratepayers. Consumer advocates questioned whether past utility mergers have delivered promised long-term savings.

Marissa Paslick Gillett, former chair of the Connecticut Public Utilities Commission, said major utility mergers in the past decade have not definitively provided the synergies companies promised regulators.

“Mergers are not about consumers; they're about shareholders. For the Dominion shareholders, they are selling their shares at a premium. The executives are getting massive payouts for facilitating this, assuming it all goes through, and obviously NextEra believes the transaction is going to add value to the company. " — Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School NextEra and Dominion both have substantial carbon emissions. U.S. utilities in the most recent Benchmarking Air Emissions report from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Their combined emissions were less than those of either Vistra Energy or Duke Energy. Susan Glickman, vice president of policy and partnerships at the CLEO Institute, said continued emissions from new methane gas plants built for data centers would increase climate impacts on vulnerable populations. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the merger could expand renewable energy if NextEra remains responsible to customers. He also warned that the combined company's financial resources and political influence could work against ratepayers. William Shobe, research professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Virginia, said Virginia's laws including the Clean Economy Act would still apply to the utility regardless of ownership. He noted NextEra's track record in solar and wind could influence the combined company's approach to non-emitting technology.”