By Julie Patel
Duke Energy and Progress Energy announced plans today to merge and create the nation’s largest power company with 7.1 million customers in six states.
It would make Progress, which serves 1.6 million customers in Orlando and central Florida, a bigger powerhouse in Florida when it comes to pushing for policies on issues such as rates, renewable energy and nuclear power that affect utilities, their investors and their customers.
But some previous attempts to merge utilities have failed due to concerns from regulators. A proposed merger of Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group collapsed in 2006 after New Jersey regulators and consumer advocates expressed concerns about possible rate hikes. That year, Florida Power & Light’s parent company and Constellation Energy also dropped plans to merge after Maryland regulators wanted a detailed review of the plan and legislators passed new rules to block rate hikes.
In 2001, FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, and Entergy also ended talks to join forces after disputes over the terms of the agreement.
Duke and Progress are both based in North Carolina.
It’s possible that Duke, which has energy conservation rebates that are considered more aggressive than some Florida utilities’, may ask to implement programs in the Sunshine state that save a lot more energy.
Duke has been criticized for cost overruns on a coal-gasification plant in Indiana. Progress has been criticized for overruns for a proposed nuclear plant in Levy County and a nuclear plant in Citrus County that has not been operating for more than a year due to repairs and upgrades.
Jim Warren, executive director of NC WARN, a group opposed to new nuclear power plants, said in a statement that with all the new capital, the company “should now be strong enough to gamble its own money on new nukes instead of saddling ratepayers and federal taxpayers with the monumental risks of cost overruns” and projects that fall through.
