| Progress Energy Inc. | |
| Type: | Subsidiary of Duke Energy |
| Foundation: | 1925 |
| Location: | Raleigh, North Carolina, United States |
| Num Employees: | 11,000 (2007) |
| Industry: | Electric utility |
| Parent: | Duke Energy |
Progress Energy was a power generation and distribution company. Prior to its merger with Duke Energy, it was a Fortune 500 energy company with more than 21,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $9 billion in annual revenues. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Progress Energy includes two major electric utilities that serve approximately 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. As an independent company, the last chairman and CEO of Progress Energy was William D. Johnson; his predecessor was Robert McGehee, who died on October 9, 2007, at the age of 64 of a stroke while on a business trip to London.
Progress Energy is the majority owner and operator of the Brunswick, Crystal River 3, Robinson, and Shearon Harris nuclear power plants.
On October 16, 1999, third quarter earnings of Florida Progress Corp. fell 20.5 percent as damage from Hurricane Floyd.[1]
On August 24, 1999, Carolina Power & Light Co. said that it would acquire Florida Progress Corp. for $5.3 billion, creating the nation's ninth-largest electric utility.[2]
The company's slogan prior to the Duke Energy merger was, "People, performance, excellence."
In 2000, Carolina Power & Light bought Florida Power Corporation and changed its name to Progress Energy. Progress Energy represents a family of companies, including CP&L, Florida Power, Progress Telecom, NCNG and SRS, and an important new organization, Energy Ventures. The company built a new headquarters in downtown Raleigh in 2004.[3]
On January 10, 2011, Duke Energy announced plans to take over Progress Energy in a $26 billion deal resulting in the country's largest electric utility with 7.1 million customers. Duke Energy plans to "maintain substantial operations in Raleigh."[4] When the merger was completed on July 3, 2012, Duke Chairman James E. (Jim) Rogers became Chairman and CEO of the new combined company, while Progress CEO Bill Johnson resigned.[5] [6]
In 2008, the Corporate Responsibility Officer named Progress Energy to its list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens.[7] Progress Energy was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005.[8]
The company is investing $300,000 in a UNC Chapel Hill study to map the offshore wind power potential of North Carolina.[9] Progress Energy launched its SunSense-branded solar incentive programs in 2009.[10]
Progress Energy has installed flue-gas desulfurization technology, or scrubbers, to remove sulfur dioxide emissions from its nine largest coal-fired power plant units.[11]
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst identified Progress Energy as the 29th-largest corporate producer of Air pollution in the United States in 2002, when it released roughly 39 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air. Major pollutants included nickel compounds, chromium compounds, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid.[12] Progress has also been named a potentially responsible party at the Carolina Transformer Co. Superfund toxic waste site, according to the Center for Public Integrity.[13]
Progress Energy owned the naming rights to the University of Central Florida's Progress Energy Welcome Center, St. Petersburg's Progress Energy Park, home of Al Lang Field, Progress Energy Center for the Arts-Mahaffey Theater, and the "Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts" in downtown Raleigh, NC.