US based NextEra Energy is buying the US utility Dominion Energy in a $66.8bn deal. The combination will create what NextEra is calling ‘a power giant’, with a combined market value of around $400bn and assets of 110 GW, including a significant nuclear portfolio. And it will give NextEra access to the US state of Virginia, which is a key market in the fast-growing data centre sector, and give it a foothold in a market it cannot access at scale in its heartland of Florida. The transaction is due to close in H2 2027.
Aside from an important entry into market being created by the rise of artificial intelligence and the data centres used to power them, the transaction will create what NexEra believes would be the world’s largest regulated electric utility business, with 10 million customers in US states Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, 110 GW of generation assets in nuclear, renewables, and natural gas, and growth opportunities totalling 130 GW in its development pipeline. It is set to be the second-largest US nuclear player.
The two companies say that this increased scale would enable NextEra to buy, build, fund and operate projects more efficiently, and bring “unmatched buying power in the supply chain”.
The US Electricity Information Administration reported in May this year that power demand in the US would grow 1.3% in 2026 and 3.1% in 2027, with AI as the main driver along with other trends such as increased electrification of transport and some heavy industry. This follows average annual growth of 1.7% between 2020 and 2026, which is in stark contrast to 15 years of flat demand growth for electricity between 2005 and 2020. Virginia has the highest proportion of power demand from data centres at 25% now, and the potential to hit 57% by 2030, according to research from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in February this year.
