Duke Energy North America Continues Generation Divesture Trend in 2005

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Duke Energy North America, a division of Duke Energy Americas (Houston, Texas), the unregulated subsidiary of Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina), started the year announcing the agreement with Invenergy LLC (Chicago, Illinois) for the sale of the 540-megawatt (MW) Grays Harbor Energy (Elma, Washington) merchant energy project. Construction on Grays Harbor Energy began in October 2001, and was postponed in September 2002 due to the poor merchant energy market.

In order to reduce liabilities, Duke Energy is also looking to form joint-venture partnerships, with capital investment firms or with other generators that have mixed fuel generation capabilities. The company is also studying options to sell its more than 10,000 MW merchant fleet by the end of 2005. Duke Energy sold ten facilities in 2004, two were partially constructed plants where construction was postponed, including a 570 MW site in New Mexico and a 1,200 MW site in Nevada. The company also sold eight operational facilities in the southeastern United States for a total of 5,325 MW. The 7,095 MW divesture reduced Duke's debt and exposure to the unstable merchant market.

Duke Energy still remains one of the leading generating companies in North America, with eighteen facilities generating just under 11,000 MW for the unregulated side. The regulated subsidiary, Duke Power Company (Charlotte, North Carolina) has forty-four plants for roughly another 19,900 MW, for a total capacity of over 30,000 MW in North America.

View Plants Sold - 1013586 1052538 1042616 1056651 1037795 1053349 1056202 1053014 1055578

View Unregulated Plants - 1033700 1034877 1019488 1058893 1049336 1008202 1013339 1036420 1044984 1060868 1012903 1010603 1031257 1051842 1055556 1055264

View Regulated Plants - 1014091 1014219 1011793 1011738 1011729 1011902 1011776 1011765 1031442 1502757 1516310 1031410 1510904 1515657 1501550 1032745 1508951 1519324 1501549 1516313 1021978 1500071 1507432 1013575 1000317 1000337 1032746 1056569 1031428 1031435 1502992

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