Duke Energy's acquisition of Progress hits regulatoy roadblock

The planned merger of energy firms Duke Energy and Progress Energy has hit its first significant regulatory hurdle on competition c oncerns. However, the two companies say they still expected to close the deal by year end.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was in agreement with North Carolina municipal officials that the proposed merger would damage competition for wholesale power sales in the Carolinas.

Though the deal received conditional approval from the commission, the companies would need to propose measures to protect competition, if they wanted to proceed.

Opponents could respond within 30 days and the commission would decide whether the proposed measures were adequate.

Charlotte, NC-based Duke Energy counts around 685,000 electric customers in Ohio and 135,000 in Kentucky.

According to industry experts the schedule could lead to delays in concluding the merger deal.  However, according to Duke spokesman Tome Williams, the companies could still hit their target.