"You can always have shortages, but by and large, the Carolinas are in pretty good shape as far as the power we have and what's being built," Randy Wheeless, a corporate affairs associate for the Charlotte-based company, tells Globest.com.
"We are aggressively executing our strategy--creating energy solutions for customers and positive results for shareholders," CEO Richard B. Priory says in a prepared statement announcing the company's first-quarter results.
Duke has about two million commercial and residential customers in the Carolinas, most of them or 75% of them in North Carolina. The company has grown consistently at the rate of 40,000 customers a year.
Total revenue recently reported for Duke Energy's franchised electric business was $1.6 billion, up 4% from the prior year-quarter. Commercial sales rose 5.3% during the quarter while residential sales went up 8.5% compared to the last quarter.
Five years ago, perhaps 95% of Duke's profits came from its electrical operations. But now supplying energy to North and South Carolina only supplies about one third of company profits, Wheeless says.
"It's not that our market (in the Carolinas) has gotten smaller, but that our other pieces have gotten bigger," he tells GlobeSt.com.
Duke Energy earlier this month reported first quarter 2001 earnings of 74 cents per share, a 51% increase over the 49 cents reported the first quarter of 2000.
Revenue increased 126% over the prior-year-quarter to $16.5 billion, due to rapid expansion of the company's North American and international competitive energy businesses.
Several national publications have recognized Duke Energy for its performance. Duke Energy's Energy Services businesses include North American Wholesale Energy, International Energy and Other Energy Services business segments.
In addition to holdings in Latin America and Asia, the company has also been active in providing energy to California to alleviate the problems there.
In the future, Duke will continue to expand both nationally and internationally. "There's obviously a growing demand for energy in other parts of the world, and in other parts of our own country as well," Wheeless says. The Midwest, southeast and parts of the western U.S. are among prime markets.
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David Wilkening
David Wilkening began his long journalism career as a police reporter for Chicago-area newspapers. He became a writer-editor for major newspapers in Chicago, Washington, Detroit and Florida. He has been a business editor, political editor and travel editor for newspapers and magazines. He tried for a while to be a political operative but did better as an adjunct college professor teaching English and journalism. He is the author of several books, both ghost-written and under his own name. He is also a widely published freelance writer who currently lives in Orlando.
