Duke Energy to Buy Progress Energy in deal sure to mix up utility market In a deal that's sure to reverberate throughout the industry, Duke Energy Corp. agreed to purchase Progress Energy Inc. for $13.7 billion, passing Southern Co. to form the largest U.S. utility.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke affirms that the deal enables it to further extend to parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida - states where it operates, but that Progress has a stronghold in. The acquisition represents a major consolidation of the utility network in the southeast coast, with Duke taking on the 22,000 megawatts of power generation capacity that Progress currently owns.

However, one thing that consumers shouldn't expect from the deal is cost savings, according to Paul Patterson, an analyst at Glenrock Associates LLC, who told Bloomberg: "There should be no substantial cost savings with the companies being so close together."

Acquisitions are becoming increasingly popular in the U.S. power industry as companies move to augment their customer base as a means to combat falling prices. According to executives from the two companies, the deal will ensure that customers do, in fact, save money because the costs associated with building new power plants or complying with environmental regulations can now be passed across more customers.
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