Dominion Energy has slipped into the Midlands through a side door.

The Virginia-based electric utility that aims to buy Lexington County-based SCANA will buy and operate Fort Jackson’s electrical system for 50 years in a $142 million deal, the utility announced this week.

This may strengthen Dominion’s efforts to persuade lawmakers and regulators to let it buy SCANA, the owner of SC Electric & Gas which is more than $4 billion in debt for its failed nuclear project.

Dominion owns a natural gas pipeline it wants to extend through South Carolina to the Georgia coast.

Dominion plans to start operating at Fort Jackson next April. If it buys SCANA, it would add another 1.1 million electric and gas customers in the state.

Fort Jackson is the Army’s largest training base, graduating more than 36,000 soldiers a year on 81 square miles east of Columbia.

The Pentagon wants to turn over Fort Jackson’s system to a private provider to cut costs, Dominion spokesman Dan Genest told The State newspaper.

Dominion has similar contracts with 8 military bases, including Fort Hood, TX.