By Elizabeth McGowan
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO
Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra Energy might be in a rush to close the $67 billion merger proposed in mid-May to spawn the nation’s biggest regulated power company.
But consumer and renewable energy advocates in Virginia have urged caution by issuing a collective “Whoa!”
They want state government officials and regulators to subject NextEra’s acquisition of Richmond-based Dominion to rigorous scrutiny—so the all-stock, mega-deal benefits ratepayers, not just utility shareholders. To achieve that, they say, Virginia must establish robust protections for affordability, transparency, competition and electric grid modernization.
“Virginia’s leadership is right to ask hard questions now, before irreversible decisions are made,” said Tony Smith, CEO of Secure Solar Futures in Staunton and president of the Virginia Distributed Solar Alliance.
“If structured thoughtfully, this merger debate could become more than a corporate transaction,” he said in an interview. “It could be a catalyst for a broader public conversation about how the state upgrades its grid, protects ratepayers and builds an energy system designed to evolve.”
The new utility behemoth would maintain dual headquarters in Juno Beach, Fla. and Richmond, according to Dominion.
Combined, it would serve about 10 million customer accounts in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida, and carry a market capitalization of roughly $250 billion.
NextEra’s Florida Power & Light (FPL) serves 6 million customer accounts, while Dominion provides electricity for 3.6 million customers in Virginia, and North and South Carolina, and gas to 500,000 customers in South Carolina.
Dominion CEO Bob Blue joined his NextEra counterpart John Ketchum and touted the benefits of joining what they called two strong operating platforms with the scale and balance sheet to deliver the generation, transmission and grid investments their customers and economies need.
“This is a unique situation where we believe one plus one equals three,” Ketchum said in a press announcement. “We are confident that our customers, the communities we serve, our shareholders and our industry-leading teams will all benefit.”
NextEra has attempted to buy several other utilities, Duke Energy among them. But that acquisition failed six years ago when leaders at the North Carolina-based utility rejected the proposition.
State and federal reviews of NextEra’s acquisition of Dominion, which was already endorsed by the boards of directors at both utilities, could take as long as two years, Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Energy, said in an interview.
It requires approval from Virginia’s three-member State Corporation Commission as well as utility regulatory commissions in North and South Carolina. At the national level, it will be reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the state General Assembly don’t have a direct vote on the merger. However, Smith and others emphasized that utility-related legislation signed by the governor can dictate what measures state regulators might require to OK the deal.
As well, consumer advocates expect Democratic Attorney General Jay Jones to scrutinize the deal because his office houses an experienced ratepayer advocate.
“With the SCC, having the blessing of the governor and the General Assembly would go a long way,” Smith said. “The key question is not simply who owns the utility, but whether this merger shifts additional costs and risks onto households and businesses.”
Watchdogs: One-time rebates aren’t enough
Gilmore said that the sole standard for judging the merger is if it improves the lives of Dominion customers, who can’t choose an electric utility.
He also questioned NextEra’s “deeply troubling track record.” His Charlottesville nonprofit, which advocates for utility reform, laid out an array of NextEra’s transgressions by its principal subsidiary, FPL.
Gilmore said he is concerned that not only are FPL customers experiencing a hefty rate hike, but the utility’s profits in 2025 are more than 27% of a customer’s electric bill, almost double the national average of 14% of a consumer’s bill.
Compounding his worries is the combined company’s rate base–its total generation, transmission and distribution assets–of $138 billion–with projected annual growth of 11% through 2032, he said. Folded into that figure are the 130 gigawatts for data centers and other large projects NextEra and Dominion said are in their combined “pipeline.”
Customers could well be on the hook for such rapid growth in the form of higher electric bills because utilities earn guaranteed profits on their rate base.
In Virginia, regulators can mitigate ballooning consumer costs related to utility construction projects by scaling back a utility’s return on equity — a power company’s permitted profit rate.
However, Dominion’s announcement did not commit to lowering return on equity costs or reducing customer bills over the long term. Historically, NextEra and Dominion have pushed for return on equity rates well above those sought by other similar entities, according to Clean Virginia.
Virginia utility regulators set Dominion’s latest return on equity at 9.8% in late 2025.
Gilmore and Dana Wiggins, an economic justice specialist at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, are wary about a proposal included in the merger announcement to “drive affordability” by paying out $2.25 billion in bill credits over two years to Dominion customers in Virginia and North and South Carolina.
“One-time credits are a down payment on political goodwill, not a guarantee of affordability,” Gilmore said.
Wiggins focuses on low-and moderate-income Virginians strapped by outsize utility bills that are often second only to their monthly housing expenses.
“Those billions in rebates might sound like a lot, but the average residential ratepayer won’t gain much of a savings,” she said. “With this merger, we need to set a standard basic level of service because we can’t lose sight of electricity being an essential service.”
Already, the Dominion clients she helps wrestle with the consequences of electricity shutoffs for nonpayment of bills, often a precursor to eviction.
“A monopoly doesn’t have to cater to people we’re concerned about, customers who are just hanging on,” she said, adding that consequences could cascade for the poor if rate cuts and bill payment flexibility aren’t prioritized. “Our fear is that we’ll have worse outcomes if NextEra doesn’t address these issues.”
A boon for non-utility owned solar?
NextEra is the nation’s top developer of renewable energy — with at least 3,800 megawatts of battery storage operating today and a trajectory of up to 43 GW through 2032, according to research by former U.S. Department of Energy official Jigar Shah.
Shah and others speculate that potential expansion is appealing for Dominion, tasked with providing power for the world’s largest concentration of data centers. As artificial intelligence mushrooms, Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley” has become a political lightning rod with factions debating fiercely over who should be saddled with paying to fuel the power-hungry server farms.
Smith and others argue that allowing NextEra and Dominion to continue constructing and owning most of the energy infrastructure is a recipe for continued rate hikes. Instead, they say, let third-party energy developers and customers relieve that utility burden by contributing power to the grid.
“This moment presents an extraordinary opportunity for a transformed utility model,” Smith said.
For years, Virginia advocates have been prodding Dominion to be more flexible about harnessing power from a range of ready-to-go clean technologies, known as distributed energy resources. DERs include rooftop solar, battery storage, heat pumps, smart thermostats and electric vehicle batteries. These technologies, installed on a utility’s distribution network, can slim down electric bills by helping utilities meet electricity demand, especially during heat waves and cold snaps.
Such an effort would piggyback on laws passed by Virginia legislators this session that set aggressive goals for community rooftop solar and battery storage.
That momentum could unleash new legislation and beef up existing measures to give the landmark Virginia Clean Economy Act more heft than it had when it passed in 2020, Smith said.
Robin Dutta, executive director of the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, said diversification leads to energy security and affordability. His trade group represents Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
“With consumer choice, we don’t have to rely solely on utility-delivered energy, which is putting all the eggs in one basket,” Dutta said. “Our industry has been fighting for alternatives for years.”
On the federal front, the Trump administration has favored massive corporate acquisitions and mergers, but derailed investments in renewable energy.
Shah noted the irony of the administration approving a colossal utility merger that accelerates the rise of renewables.
“An administration trying to slow the energy transition,” Shah wrote in an online post, “just greenlighted the deal that locks it in.”
Reach Elizabeth McGowan at elizabeth.mcgowan@whro.org