Progress Energy

Predecessors

Raleigh-based Carolina Power & Light was founded in 1908 through the merger of Raleigh Electric, Central Carolina Power, and Consumer Light & Power. It acquired the Asheville Power and Light company the following year. By 1999, the company served as the primary power provider for eastern North Carolina, northeastern South Carolina, and the Asheville area, with 1.2 million customers. It was the second-largest power company in North Carolina.

St. Petersburg-based Florida Power was founded in 1899 and began to expand starting in the 1920s. By 1999, the company served as the primary power provider for Central Florida and North Central Florida, with 1.3 million customers. In 1982, the company was reorganized into the Florida Progress Corporation to diversify beyond electricity, with its non-electric holdings including the broadband infrastructure provider Progress Telecom and a $5 million stake in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Merger

On August 24, 1999, Carolina Power & Light announced that it would acquire Florida Progress Corporation for $5.3 billion in cash and stock, as well as $2.7 billion in assumed debt. The company would be the ninth-largest electric utility in the country, with a total generation capacity of 18,520 megawatts. The merger was completed in the fall of 2000, with the combined company retaining CP&L management.

The combined company took on the name Progress Energy, though both the CP&L and Florida Power names were retained at the consumer service level until a rebranding effort in 2003. The rebrand was partially to prevent confusion between Florida Power and the unrelated Florida Power & Light.

In 2004, the company expanded its downtown Raleigh headquarters with the construction of Two Progress Plaza.

Sale to Duke Energy

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." 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 William D. Johnson resigned.

In 2008, the Corporate Responsibility Officer named Progress Energy to its list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens. Progress Energy was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005.

The company is investing $300,000 in a UNC Chapel Hill study to map the offshore wind power potential of North Carolina. Progress Energy launched its SunSense-branded solar incentive programs in 2009.

Progress Energy has installed flue-gas desulfurization technology, or scrubbers, to remove sulfur dioxide emissions from its nine largest coal-fired power plant units.

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. 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.

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.