Monday's hearing in the proposed merger between Progress Energy and Duke Energy lasted less than an hour and takes up all of 74 pages.

The N.C. Utilities Commission, which strictly limited the scope of the hearing, issued the transcript Tuesday afternoon. The actual questioning by the sole remaining opponent to the merger, N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, took about a half-hour, the rest of the time being devoted to procedural matters.

It was clear from the brief hearing that the N.C. Commission plans to rule quickly, potentially this week. The N.C. Commission on Tuesday afternoon gave parties until Thursday to make last-minute filings, signaling again that the ruling could be imminent.

Raleigh-based Progress and Charlotte-based Duke plan to form the nation's largest electric utility and hope to get the deal done by July 8. Their merger was approved conditionally this month by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

State regulators have denied an emergency appeal filed by a Durham-based nuclear watchdog group seeking to allow greater scrutiny of the proposed merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy during Monday's scheduled public hearing.

The N.C. Utilities Commission ruled late Friday that N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network has not shown a good reason as to why the hearing should consider a broader range of issues, including more than dozen private settlements that Duke and Progress reached with large customers in exchange for those customers not opposing the merger.

The $26 billion merger, originially proposed in January 2011, was approved two weeks ago by federal regulators in Washington. The last major hurdle is the N.C. Utilities Commission, which has scheduled a hearing Monday afternoon in Raleigh.

The 2 p.m. hearing is strictly limited: N.C. WARN will be able to ask questions about three filings made in May and June.

Raleigh-based Progress and Charlotte-based Duke are proposing to form the nation's largest electric utility with operations in a dozen states and in South America. The merger would result in the elimination of 1,860 positions over three years at both companies and the elimination of Progress Energy's corporate headquarters in downtown Raleigh.

In exchange for promises not to oppose the merger, the two electric companies have cut deals with organization representing virtually every customer in North Carolina, promising to deliver the merger's financial benefits to those groups. They are rural electric cooperatives, municipal power agencies, industrial power users and the Public Staff, the state's consumer protection bureau in utility matters before the N.C. Utilities Commission.

The N.C. commission is widely expected to rule on the merger promptly to acquiesce to the utilities self-imposed deadline to complete the deal by July 8, the date the termination agreement runs out and the companies can walk away from the deal without paying hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties.

Progress Energy and Duke Energy this morning urged state regulators to strictly limit the scope of Monday's scheduled hearing on their pending utility merger.

The two power companies asked the N.C. Utilities Commission to reject the emergency appeal, filed Thursday by a Durham-based nuclear watchdog group, to open up the merger review to a broad range of issues.  

The $26 billion merger, originally proposed in January 2011, was approved two weeks ago by federal regulators in Washington. The last major hurdle is the N.C. Utilities Commission, which has scheduled a hearing Monday afternoon.

The hearing is strictly limited. N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network will be able to ask questions about three filings made in May and June. The N.C. commission said that most of the issues were reviewed during three days of public hearings last September and don't need to be revisited.

Progress Energy will soon be able to rely on thousands of marketing helpers to recruit customers for an energy conservation program.

The new recruiters will be none other than existing Progress customers.

The Raleigh-based electric utility received approval today from state regulators to pay customers financial bonuses for referring other customers into the conservation program.

Progress will pay customers up to $100 a year, or $25 per referral, through bill credits. To qualify, the customer doing the referrals has to be enrolled in the EnergyWise conservation program.

Some of the region's most influential environmental organizations are asking N.C. regulators to impose additional conditions on the proposed merger between Progress Energy and Duke Energy before the two power companies are allowed to combine into the nation's largest electric utility.

The groups filed their request with the N.C. Utilities Commission on Monday, the deadline for participants in the merger proceedings to sway the state regulators in their merger review. The filing by the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the S.C. Coastal Conservation League was posted on the commission's web site this morning.

"The commission's decision in this proceeding will shape the energy future not only of North Carolina, but of the Southeast and the entire nation as well," the groups wrote. "Environmental Intervenors remain concerned that the proposed merger does not provide sufficient protections for North Carolina ratepayers or the environment."

The $26 billion merger could be just weeks away from final approval by the N.C. Utilities Commission after being approved recently by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington. The issue before the N.C. commission now is whether to hold another round of public hearings or to rule based on hearings held last year and submitted legal briefs.
 

The state's consumer advocate says there's no need to hold another round of public hearings on the proposed merger between Progress Energy and Duke Energy.

The Public Staff, as the state's consumer protection agency is called, told the N.C. Utilities Commission late Wednesday that the merger proposal is ready for a ruling.

The Public Staff is arguably the most influential independent participant in the merger proceedings and the bureau's position points to a likely imminent ruling from the N.C. commission.

The N.C. commission is the last major hurdle for the $26 billion utility deal, which was announced 18 months ago and finally approved Friday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday.

North Carolina's power suppliers, awash in solar energy and other clean resources, said today they will not be able to meet a state mandate this year for generating electricity from two of the state's most abundant renewable resources: swine waste and poultry waste. 

The organizations, including Progress Energy and Duke Energy, said they have fallen behind in efforts to sign contracts to buy power output from independent generators that burn or extract flammable gas from those agricultural animal wastes.

The power suppliers collectively asked the N.C. Utilities Commission for a delay to meet those green energy goals, saying the technologies are immature, the markets are not developed, and potential suppliers are inexperienced.

The filing was made by Raleigh-based Progress, Charlotte-based Duke, Richmond-based Dominion N.C. Power, GreenCo Solutions, Public Works Commission of Fayetteville, Tennessee Valley Authority as well as a number of rural electric cooperatives and municipal power agencies.

Progress Energy wants to pay flower shops, pizzerias and other small businesses up to 80 percent of the cost of installing energy-efficient equipment.

Raleigh-based Progress proposed the energy-efficiency program to the N.C. Utilities Commission on Friday and hopes to have the program approved this year. If approved, the program would cover several thousand dollars in costs per business for upgrades to lighting, refrigeration, and heating and cooling.

Progress is seeking approval of the program to meet its state-imposed mandate to promote renewable energy and efficiency programs. The company would be able to recover the costs of the program, including lost energy sales, from all customers through rate increases.

Meeting energy demand through energy efficiency programs is generally considered to be cheaper that building power plants to produce an equivalent amount of energy.

Progress Energy's North Carolina customers could be in for a slight rate reduction this year, thanks to the falling price of the fuels Progress uses for its power plants.

The Raleigh-based company told South Carolina regulators today it plans to cut rates in that state to account for falling fuel costs, largely attributable to record-low costs of natural gas. The change would reduce a typical residential bill by about $3.50 a month for that state's 175,000 customers.

Progress is expected to make a similar request in this state next month. While the cost factors from state to state are not identical, the South Carolina filing indicates that residential and business customers in this state would see a potential decrease as well.

The typical residential monthly bill is $106 in this state for Progress customers, based on 1,000 kilowatt hours of monthly usage. The company has 1.3 million customers in North Carolina.
 

Progress Energy issued lackluster first-quarter earnings this morning in what Progress officials hope is the company’s last quarterly earnings release as a stand-alone company.