Faced with billions in debt, SCANA investors agreed this week to sell the company.

According to a SCANA announcement, owners of at least two-thirds of common stock voted to sell to Dominion Energy at a special meeting in Columbia Tuesday.

SCANA Chairman May-bank Hagood said, “We believe the merger with Dominion Energy offers the most comprehensive solution for our customers.”

SCANA calls the sale a “merger” of its Lexington County-based operations with Dominion Energy.

The sale will give more the Virginia giant more than 700,000 new ratepayers.

When the merger is completed, the combined company will have about 6.5 million ratepayers in 20 states and generate about 31,400 megawatts over 93,600 miles of electric lines, SCANA said.

It also will have a natural gas pipeline network totaling 106,400 miles and operate one of the nation’s largest natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of capacity.

The sale has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Georgia Public Service Commission, and early termination by the Federal Trade Commission of the 30-day waiting period under a federal antitrust law.

SCANA needs approval of the Public Service Commissions of both Carolinas and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among others.

Share holders – many of them retired or current SCANA employees – have been hurt since share value fell from $75 early last year to about $40 now.

SCANA executives see the sale as a way to regain the value of their investors and their own shares, but it may cost some of them their jobs.

It will also mean ownership of another major South Carolina-owned corporation will, like many banks and other businesses, be gone.

Dominion has promised to keep operating SCANA’s headquarters in Cayce, but major decisions will be made in its Virginia headquarters.