SC judge approves paying $61M back to now-Dominion customers after nuclear scandal

A South Carolina judge on Wednesday approved the distribution of some $61 million to 1.1 million ratepayers of the former SCANA utility, acquired by Dominion Energy in 2019, resulting from the sale of property from the now-defunct company.

No date was announced for the distribution — either in the form of checks or credits on bills of current ratepayers of Dominion Energy — but it is likely to begin within a few months.

The distribution approval by special Judge Jean Toal marked the final act of a long and contentious four-year-old lawsuit arising from the $10 billion failure of SCANA’s effort to build a nuclear plant earlier this century at the V.C. Summer complex in Fairfield County.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2018 and was later certified as a class action on behalf of more than 1 million former ratepayers who were angered about financing SCANA’s failed nuclear plant. As the construction of the doomed plant proceeded, SCANA for years added billions of dollars of surcharges to ratepayers to pay for the plant’s ongoing construction.

A state law passed by the General Assembly had allowed the utility to charge ratepayers for that construction.

“We’re at the end of the road,” plaintiffs’ attorney John Alphin told Toal as Wednesday’s hearing began at the Richland County courthouse in downtown Columbia.

The $61 million available to be distributed to ratepayers as a result of the sales of several dozen pieces of property, when added to an earlier amount of about $60 million available to be refunded to ratepayers in 2019, means about $121 million will have been set aside for distribution to ratepayers, Alphin said.

One of the largest pieces of property was a 3,000-acre former plantation in Georgetown County. Although that tract has been in the news and was in play in settlement negotiations, it will not be part of any sale and is expected to be transferred to the State of South Carolina. That transfer has not yet been finalized, according to Dominion Energy.

Amounts in the current settlement earmarked for distribution by the more than 1 million former ratepayers will vary between less than a dollar to — for some major industrial users — more than $1 million, lawyers said.

Still to be worked out is the exact dollar threshold for which the former ratepayers will receive, either a check or a credit to their Dominion bills. Lawyers said they expected that ratepayers owed $50 or less would likely get a bill credit. Those owed more would get a check.

Judge: ‘I’m proud the way it worked out’

The lawsuit was one of numerous civil actions filed against SCANA and SCE&G after the utility’s July 2017 failure to build a $10 billion nuclear plant in Fairfield County.

The failure led to the acquisition of debt-plagued SCANA — once a highly respected, prosperous South Carolina company whose stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange — by Virginia energy giant Dominion in January 2019.

Other fallout from the nuclear plant debacle included criminal charges of covering up problems at the V.C. Summer plant and guilty pleas by two top SCANA officials and criminal fraud charges and a guilty plea by a top Westinghouse official. Westinghouse was the lead contractor on construction at the plant, which was plagued by cost overruns and delays.

Part of Wednesday’s $61 million settlement included a payment by Dominion of some $38 million for various properties. That payment helped make Wednesday’s settlement possible, lawyers said.

“I’m proud the way it worked out,” Toal said, stressing what a complex process it was to handle the numerous pieces of property involved. Numerous meetings among the lawyers were held, she said.

Plaintiffs in the case who represented the 1.1 million ratepayer class were Richard Lightsey, LeBrian Cleckley and Phillip Cooper. Besides Alphin, plaintiffs’ lawyers were Jay Ward and Whitney Harrison. Dominion Energy chief deputy counsel Jim Stuckey was also at the hearing, along with Dominion local attorneys Steven Pugh and Ben Carlton.

Trustee Donald Tomlin gave a report to Toal on the disposition of the assets.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the 3,000-acre Georgetown tract has not been sold but its transfer to the State of South Carolina is expected.

This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 11:18 AM.