SCANA’s sale will force it to sell up to $80 million in its properties.

That’s required under a settlement with ratepayers’ lawyers, according to Ron Aiken of the SC Office of Regulatory Staff.

Aiken told the Chronicle that the Public Service Commission approval of a Dominion Energy takeover of Lexington County-based SCANA and its SC Electric & Gas subsidiary’s proposed rates now triggers:

• A cash payment of $115 million for ratepayers and their attorneys.

• The sale of property valued at $60 million to $80 million to benefit 727,000 SCE&G ratepayers.

If the property sale produces $8 million, the average ratepayer will get $110.

“As for [lawyers’] fees, as of right now one can only speculate,” Aiken said.

“The only certainty is that there is a cap of 5% on whatever total amount the judge decides the plaintiff’s attorneys have secured for their clients.”

The 11 attorneys involved in lawsuits against SCANA also won an agreement to excuse ratepayers from another $2 billion in future rate hikes for the cost of abandoning SCANA’s failed $9 billion nuclear reactors.

The lawyers want the judge to award them 5% of that $2 billion in unpaid future rates or $100 million.

That would be a $9.09 million fee for each lawyer.

If Judge Joe Anderson approves, that would leave the lawyers’ clients only $15 million in recovered rates.

Aiken said the 11 attorneys have shared information with his office and helped with “our case before the commission. It’s important to note that procedurally, they have not yet made a formal request for fees.

“It is up to the judge ultimately to make a determination whether and how much the attorneys may earn.

“It could be what they seek, it could be less.”

Earlier announcement of the lawsuits’ settlement led the public to believe the $115 million will come from severance pay for SCANA executives who mismanaged the abandoned project.

Aiken said it is unclear whether “the contractual financial obligations [of $115 million] to honor the executive employee contracts were ever going to be passed on to ratepayers.”

Critics have questioned if the $115 million might be passed on to SCE&G ratepayers in future rates.