NextEra Energy, among the largest electric utilities in the U.S., is reportedly in talks to acquire Virginia-based Dominion Energy. POWER has learned that a deal, which would be a mostly stock transaction, could be announced in the coming days.
NextEra includes a regulated utility serving about 6 million customers in Florida. The company also has an unregulated unit focused on renewable energy.
The Financial Times, in a report after markets closed on May 15, said the two utilities were talking about a deal. The newspaper also said a deal could fall apart. Neither utility had commented on the possibility of a deal as of late day May 17.
NextEra has a market value of nearly $195 billion. Both utilities have been involved in transactions related to increased power demand from data centers; NextEra has an agreement with Google tied to the restart of the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa.
Dominion has a market cap of about $54 billion. The utility serves about 4 million customers in Virginia—home to many current U.S. data centers—and the Carolinas.
FactSet has said NextEra is the largest U.S. utility by market value, and is worth almost twice as much as Southern Co., the next-largest utility, which has a market cap of around $104 billion.
Any NextEra-Dominion deal would be subject to regulatory approval.
This story will be updated.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
