Duke Energy Florida, formerly Florida Power, was the generation, transmission, and distribution sector of

Florida Progress Corporation Duke Energy Florida, formerly Florida Power, was the generation, transmission, and distribution sector of Florida Progress Corporation. The company distributed power over much of central and north Florida. Their service area covers approximately ...

. The company distributed power over much of central and north Florida. Their service area covers approximately 13,000 square miles. Along with that, the company supplies electric service to approximately 1.8 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in the state. Florida Progress merged with

Carolina Power & Light Carolina Power & Light (CP&L), later doing business as Progress Energy Inc., was an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution utility based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company was founded on July 13, 1908 as the result of the merger ...

in 2000 to form Progress Energy. Progress Energy merged with

Duke Energy Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overview Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 watt, megawatts of base-load and peak generati ...

in 2012. Today the Florida operations operate as Duke Energy Florida.

History

In 1899, Frank A. Davis founded the St. Petersburg Electric Light and Power Company in the newly founded town of St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1911 it started offering 24 hour service to their customers. After a series of expansions, in 1927 St. Petersburg Electric Light and Power Company became Florida Power Corporation. Reddy Kilowatt became the company's mascot in In 1939. The Honner family received free television from Florida Power Corporation in 1952 in celebration of the company installing its 200,000th meter. In 1963, the company installed a specially designed underwater cable in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...

. It was believed to be the longest one-piece installation in Florida back then. Land was also purchased to build their first nuclear power plant in

Citrus County Citrus County is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 153,843. Its county seat is Inverness, and its largest community is Homosassa Springs. Citrus County comp ...

. Andrew H. Hines became the company's president in 1972. In 1977, the nuclear power plant was finally built in Citrus County. In 1982, in hopes of diversifying beyond utility operations, Florida Power reorganized as a holding company, Florida Progress Corporation. Louie the Lighting Bug became the mascot for their television ads in 1983. The company reached 1 million customers in 1986. In 1999, the company celebrated their 100-year anniversary. In 2000, Florida Progress merged with

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the South ...

-based Carolina Power & Light to form Progress Energy Inc. Progress Energy merged with Duke Energy in 2012.

Future Projects

On March 25, 2019, Duke Energy Florida announced the new locations of where they will be putting their newest universal solar power plants. The company announced that these solar power plants will provide cleaner and smarter energy solutions, which will be beneficial to their Florida customers. The three locations are Lake Placid in Highlands County, Trenton in Gilchrist County, and

DeBary DeBary is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States, on the eastern shore of the St. Johns River near Lake Monroe. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 20,696. It is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Orm ...

in Volusia County. Duke Energy Florida is predicting that these three solar plants will eliminate nearly 800 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in Florida each year upon commercial operation.

External links

* * https://www.duke-energy.com/our-company/about-us/our-history * https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/duke-energy-florida-announces-3-more-solar-power-plants-totaling-195-megawatts-300818058.html Companies based in St. Petersburg, Florida 2012 establishments in Florida {{US-energy-company-stub