COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Dominion Energy says it has completed its merger with a South Carolina utility drowning in debt after the failure of a nuclear construction project.

The Virginia-based company announced Wednesday that it paid $6.8 billion for SCANA Corp.’s stock and also is taking on SCANA’s consolidated net debts of $6.6 billion.

Dominion was the only buyer for the parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas after SCANA abandoned the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion in 2017.

More than 737,000 SCE&G customers have already paid more than $2 billion toward the project. The deal approved by South Carolina regulators forces them to keep paying billions more, for the next 20 years.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.