On July 2, 2012, Duke Energy Corp. (“Duke”) and Progress Energy, Inc. (“Progress”) finalized their merger after receiving regulatory approval from the South Carolina Public Service Commission (“SCPSC”). The SCPSC’s approval was the final regulatory step needed to complete the merger.
Duke and Progress received approval for the merger from the North Carolina Utilities Commission on June 29, 2012, and conditional approval from FERC on June 9, 2012 (see June 11, 2012 edition of the WER). Duke and Progress agreed to a set of FERC-imposed conditions, including development of new transmission lines. Duke and Progress recently entered into binding transmission expansion agreements with American Electric Power Co., Inc. and Virginia Electric and Power Co., in furtherance of this new transmission development.
With the merger finalized, Progress has become a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of Duke, with the combined company operating under the Duke Energy Corp. name. Jim Rogers, Duke’s chairman, president and chief executive officer will lead the newly combined company, instead of Bill Johnson, Progress’ president and chief executive officer, as originally planned. Duke states that the merger creates the nation’s largest electric utility.