It’s expected mostly to impact the Carolinas, where both companies share a market and headquarters, Thelen said. The companies are still working out the final corporate structure to be complete later this fall, so there is no estimate of how many jobs could be impacted here.
Today starts merger hearings with the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
“A great majority of those are not impacting Ohio at all,” Thelen said. “I was told there is minimal impact of any merger-related job reduction in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.”
She said there is expected to be minimal job loss from the merger because there was already a corporate reorganization in the region after Duke Energy’s merger with Cinergy Corp. in 2006. Any jobs relocated due to the Cinergy merger finished relocating in the past year, she said. Most of the jobs were corporate related and moved to Charlotte, N.C., where Duke is headquartered.
Cincinnati is still the regional headquarters for Duke’s natural gas and electric service areas in Ohio and Kentucky. Duke Energy has approximately 3,000 employees in the region. It serves 73,000 electric customers in Butler County and 37,000 customers in Warren County, according to Duke officials.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
About the Author