Noted as one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States, Duke Energy Inc. was founded in 1904 by James Buchanan Duke and Benjamin Newton Duke. The company has its headquarters located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The company produces around 58,200 base loads and the generated power is distributed among around 7.2 million customers nationwide. The company focuses mainly on energy production and in order to meet its energy needs, Duke Energy depends on variable strategies like coal, natural gas, or even oil.
While energy needs are met through such conventional ways for the majority of its customers, the company meets its energy needs for Carolina through its nuclear power plants.
The company had grown widely in the field and as of today, they have around nine subsidiaries operating under the company. Some of the subsidiaries of the company are Duke Energy Renewables, Duke Energy Retail, Duke Energy International, Duke Energy Progress, and many more.
Even though the company that we see today took its shape in 1904, it began its operations around the 1900s. Throughout the course of the growth of the company, it grew by acquiring different companies and expanding its area of operation.
Upon the accusation of different comp-ani like Cinergy Corporation, Chatham, and many such companies, Duke Energy grew its customer base and expanded its area of business.
They also started using various methods for their energy production like nuclear power plants, conventional hydroelectric power plants, coal-fired plants, and many such.
An important event for the company took place in 2012 when Duke Energy merged with Progress Energy Inc. The new company formed as a result of their merger retained the name of Duke and also their headquarters in North Carolina.
The company worked its best to develop Charlotte into a smart city. It was in 2013 that the then-CEO of the company Jim Rogers retired from his position and Lynn Good took charge as the new CEO. He had been serving in the position ever since.
Lately, the company has been focusing its efforts on the production of clean and reliable sources of energy. The company bases the majority of its operations on sustainable development practices and also on helping different communities through their operations.
The company also tried to reduce the impact that its power plants have on the environment. While building a new power plant, it is made sure that the existing one will serve the needs of the future and also that there will be no demand to make a new plant in the future.
It was around 2006 that Duke Energy decided to build a new nuclear power plant to meet its energy needs. The company announced that they were planning to build a new power plant at a new site in Cherokee County, South Carolina.
The company went on with its plan and submitted a request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2007 for the new plan.
The request for a new nuclear power plant was approved in 2016 but Duke decided to cancel the proposal and they asked for the permission from North Carolina Utility Commission for the same. The reason behind the request was pointed to be the bankruptcy of Westinghouse and also ‘other market activity.’
The company announced that they will restart the project sometime in the future if the situation turns out favorable. But recently, in 2018 a new nuclear power plant was not included as a part of their plans for the future.
As for the financial records of the company, Duke Energy is reported to have earnings of around $3.802 billion for the fiscal year 2021 along with annual revenue of $25.097 billion.
Being such a large company in the field of energy production, Duke Energy has its involved in issues regarding the environment.
The company was one of the biggest advocates of the system known as ‘cap and trade’ in order to control the amount of carbon dioxide emission from the working and using of fossil fuels and other processes.
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According to this system, the companies will be provided an economic incentive for the reduction of pollutants that are emitted by them.
Duke Energy is also a great supporter of innovations like electric vehicles which are believed to produce less harm to the environment. In October 2018, the company announced that it will install about 530 electric car charging stations in and around Florida.
As a part of their services towers society, it was decided that about ten percent of the station will be made around low-income communities.
Just like any other company that had run for such long years, Duke Energy had also been criticized for different reasons. While there had been many reasons for criticisms, the main reason for it had always been issues concerned with the environment and the release of harmful products.
Even though they had been critical to the company, Business Insider chose Duke Energy as one of The 50 Best Employees in America.
The company also received an Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world, in 2002.
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