Duke Energy, Progress Energy speed merger work after FERC order

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Progress CEO Bill Johnson says his company and Duke have picked up the pace of merger integration, following the positive ? but conditional ? approval of their $26 billion merger on Friday by federal regulators.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy have stepped up their integration efforts, having decided to accept a federal ruling that sets additional conditions on their proposed $26 billion merger.

The companies say they have "substantially completed" their review and expect to respond by June 23 with a filing accepting the merger order issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday night.

?Receiving the FERC?s conditional orders ... is a major milestone for this transaction,? says Progress Chief Executive Bill Johnson, who is slated to run the combined business after the merger. ?Both companies have accelerated the integration planning efforts necessary to complete this transaction.?

July 1 target

Duke CEO Jim Rogers says the companies will quickly complete their evaluation of the conditions in FERC?s order while working to obtain the remaining regulatory approvals to close the merger on July 1.

Rogers notes FERC also approved the power companies? plan to run the power-plant fleets of their Carolinas utilities ? which will remain separate utilities for some time ? as a single unit. And it approved wholesale transmission tariffs for the combined company. FERC had declined to approve those merger-related items while it waited for Duke and Progress to propose acceptable means for protecting wholesale competition after the merger. FERC had rejected two proposals as insufficient to protect that competition. On March 26, the companies made the proposal FERC has now accepted, with the additional conditions.

Protecting competition

If the companies can meet FERC?s requirements by June 23, the federal regulators will approve the merger. The conditions are designed to protect wholesale competition in the Carolinas. The commission ruled in September that the merger could throttle wholesale competition in some Carolinas markets during specific winter and summer months.

John Downey covers the energy industry and public companies for the Charlotte Business Journal.

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