The story
Founded by James Buchanan Duke in 1904.1
The company began in 1900 as the Catawba Power Company when Walker Gill Wylie and his brother financed the building of a hydroelectric power station at India Hook Shoals along the Catawba River near India Hook, South Carolina. When Wylie needed additional funding to further his ambitious plan for construction of a series of hydroelectric power plants, Wylie convinced James B. Duke and his partner James Blaney to invest in the Southern Power Company, founded in 1905.
In 1917 James Blaney was the founder of the Wateree Power Company that was formed as a holding company for several utilities that had been founded and/or owned by Duke, and Blaney his associates, and in 1924 the name was changed to Duke Power. In 1927, most of the subsidiary companies, including Southern Power Company, Catawba Power Company, Great Falls Power Company, and Western Carolina Power Company were merged into Duke Power, although Southern Public Utilities, 100% owned by Duke Power, maintained a legally separate existence for the retail marketing of Duke-generated power to residential and commercial customers. Southern Public Utilities also operated transit systems, which Duke eventually converted from streetcars to buses.
In 1973, through its subsidiary, the Eastover Mining Company, Duke Power engaged in a lengthy contract dispute with the workers at the Brookside coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky. For thirteen months, workers picketed the company for improved medical benefits and the right to representation by the United Mine Workers of America, while Duke Power insisted on a no-strike clause in the miner's eventual labor contract. The strike culminated in the shooting and death of twenty-two year old miner, Lawrence D. Jones, by a foreman at the Duke Power-owned mine. Five days later, Duke Power would reach an agreement with the striking miners which included recognition of the new UMWA local, the rehiring of workers dismissed during the strike, and dropping charges related to the action.
In 1988, Nantahala Power & Light Co., which served southwestern North Carolina, was purchased by Duke from Alcoa. For many years, it was operated as a separate division of Duke Power, operating under the Duke Power Nantahala Area brand. All former Nantahala operations now operate as Duke Energy Carolinas, although the former Nantahala hydroelectric dams operating in the area are operated as the Nantahala Region for regulatory and permitting purposes. The purchase of Nantahala gave Duke Power, and subsequently Duke Energy, its first and only interconnection with the TVA.
In 1990, Duke sold its remaining transit operations. Duke Power merged with PanEnergy, a natural gas company, in 1997 to form Duke Energy. The Duke Power name continued as the electric utility business of Duke Energy until the Cinergy merger.
With the purchase of Cinergy Corporation announced in 2005 and completed on April 3, 2006, Duke Energy Corporation's customer base grew to include the Midwestern United States as well. The company operates nuclear power plants, coal-fired plants, conventional hydroelectric plants, natural-gas turbines to handle peak demand, and pumped hydro storage. During 2006, Duke Energy also acquired Chatham, Ontario-based Union Gas, which is regulated under the [Ontario Energy Board Act (1998).
On January 3, 2007, Duke Energy spun off its gas business to form Spectra Energy. Duke Energy shareholders received 1 share of Spectra Energy for each 2 shares of Duke Energy. After the spin-off, Duke Energy now receives the majority of its revenue from its electric operations in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. The spinoff to Spectra also included Union Gas, which Duke Energy acquired the previous year.
In 2011, Duke Energy worked with Charlotte's business leader community to help build Charlotte into a smart city. The group called the initiative "Envision Charlotte". At the time, the group decided on a goal to reduce energy use in the "urban core of the city by 20 percent". To do so, the group focused on making energy consumption changes to commercial buildings larger than 10,000 square feet.
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On July 3, 2012, Duke Energy merged with Progress Energy Inc with the Duke Energy name retained along with the Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters.
Duke announced on June 18, 2013, that CEO Jim Rogers was retiring and Lynn Good would become the new CEO. Rogers has been CEO and Chairman since 2006, while Good was Chief Financial Officer of Duke since 2009, having joined Duke in the 2006 Cinergy merger. Rogers' retirement was part of an agreement to end an investigation into Duke's Progress Energy acquisition in 2012.
In 2016, Duke Energy purchased Piedmont Natural Gas for $4.9 billion to become its wholly owned subsidiary. Duke Energy completed selling its remaining power operations in Central and South America for $1.2 billion months afterwards. At one point Duke Energy had more than 4,300 megawatts of electric generation in Latin America. It operated eight hydroelectric power plants in Brazil with an installed capacity of 2,307 megawatts.
The company expects to spend $13 billion upgrading the North Carolina grid from 2017.
In 2018, Jessee Pound of CNBC wrote that Duke was one of many larger American companies which "paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less", which the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy claimed was a result of Donald Trump´s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. A response from Duke to a similar claim from the Institute of Policy Studies 2024 stated: "Duke Energy has a deferred tax balance – this does not mean Duke Energy is not paying these taxes, it means that our taxes are due in future years, and we will pay them."
On December 3, 2022, an attack was carried out on two Duke Energy substations located in Moore County, North Carolina. Damage from the attack left up to 40,000 residents without electrical power for several days, with officials closing schools and declaring a state of emergency. No suspect was ever identified, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation supported local investigators in case the incident met the definition of domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act.
Proposed nuclear plant
On March 16, 2006, Duke Power announced that a Cherokee County, South Carolina site had been selected for a potential new nuclear power plant. The site is jointly owned by Duke Power and Southern Company. Duke planned to develop the site for two Westinghouse Electric Company AP1000 (advanced passive) pressurized water reactors. Each reactor would have been capable of producing approximately 1,117 megawatts. (See Nuclear Power 2010 Program.)
On December 14, 2007, Duke Power submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with an announcement that it will spend $160 million in 2008 on the plant with a total cost of $5 billion to $6 billion. The plant was approved in 2016.
In August 2017, Duke decided to seek permission from the North Carolina Utility Commission to cancel the project due to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse and "other market activity", although they retained the option of restarting the project at some point in the future if circumstances change.
This site would have been adjacent to the old site, which was never completed and abandoned in the early 1980s, and used by James Cameron as a film set for the 1989 movie The Abyss.
In 2018, Duke Energy announced that they had decided not to include new nuclear power in their long-range plans.
Headquarters buildings
J.A. Jones designed the first headquarters building, known as the Power Building, which was completed in 1927 at 440 South Church. It was five stories and 503,000 square feet (46,700 m2). The Electric Center at 526 South Church Street opened in 1975 with an addition in 1988. State Farm Insurance sold the Power Building in 2004 for $8 million to The Dilweg Cos., who anticipated significant development. Novare Group bought 5.13 acres (20,800 m2) at 408 South Church Street for $17 million from The Dilweg Cos. in a deal announced March 27, 2006. The Power Building was demolished February 24, 2007.
Duke Energy Center at 550 South Tryon Street was announced as the company's headquarters in 2009. The company announced May 17, 2021 that the headquarters will move in 2023 to Duke Energy Plaza, across the street from the current headquarters. Childress Klein is developing the new building, which will allow Duke to sell its Church Street and College Street buildings, and end its lease at 400 South Tryon. Previously named Charlotte Metro Tower, the 40-story building will be purchased when completed for up to $675 million by Childress Klein and CGA Capital, in the largest real estate deal in the city's history, announced in December 2019.
From Wikipedia’s article on Duke Energy, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7