The new Duke Energy

On Monday, July 2, Duke Energy completed its long awaited merger with Progress Energy to become the largest utility company in the US as measured by enterprise value, market capitalization, generation assets, customers and numerous other criteria. Duke now operates five utilities in six states serving over seven million customers.The company will remain headquartered in Charlotte, with substantial operations in Raleigh. Duke chief executive, Jim Rogers, will remain CEO, while Progress CEO Bill Johnson will resign, rather than lead the newly merged company as originally planned.

For the immediate future, the two utilities will continue to operate separately under the new ownership structure. The SC Utilities Commission will review the merger in one year to assess whether it is working to benefit customers. For additional coverage on the merger, see articles from the AP, Wall Street Journal, PR Newswire, Raleigh News and Observer, and Charlotte Observer.