Power company Dominion Resources Inc said it will continue with the sale of its Pennsylvania natural gas unit to a subsidiary of private equity firm SteelRiver Infrastructure Fund North America for $780 million.

Dominion said the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved the sale of Dominion Peoples to Peoples Hope Gas Companies on Nov. 19. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter.

The sale will be neutral to its 2010 operating earnings per share forecast, Dominion said in a statement.

The power producer and transporter had forecast 2010 operating earnings of $3.20 to $3.40 per share.

The company, however, said its proposed sale of another unit, Dominion Hope, to SteelRiver has been stalled by the West Virginia Public Service Commission, which rejected its transaction application on Dec. 22.

Shares of Dominion closed at $38.92 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

Pennsylvania Sale