Duke Energy and Progress Energy announced on January 10 their intention to merge into the nation’s biggest electric utility corporation. N.C. State currently gets a portion of its electricity from Progress Energy and should experience some minor effects of this merger, at least on paper. 

N.C. State Director of Facilities Jack Colby said given the information available at this time, there are not many tangible effects to be expected for N.C. State.

Unlike the University, Duke and Progress Energy, two of the area’s biggest employers, will change quite a bit.

This is the second time in the past decade that Duke Energy has participated in a merger. In 2005, Duke Energy merged with Cinergy to create Duke Energy’s Midwest service sourced from both coal and gas. 

According to Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics professor, this merger allowed Duke Energy to grow into a bigger and more profitable company.

However, there are also concerns specific to public utility mergers. According to Walden, the public utilities industry has become much more challenging. 

“Public utilities are under pressure from various sources,” Walden said.

According to Walden, these pressures are not simple, but there are three chief concerns.

“One [source of pressure is], the basic question of where they’re going to get their energy; whether it’s going to be from coal, oil, nuclear or hydro,” Walden said. “There are various issues with all of