Duke Energy Receives Advocacy Excellence Award

Duke Energy today received the prestigious Advocacy Excellence Award from the Edison Electric Institute.

Duke Energy Chairman, President and CEO James E. Rogers accepted the award in recognition of the company’s comprehensive advocacy program to promote energy efficiency with customers and employees, and at the federal, state and local levels.

A departure from current regulatory approaches, Duke Energy’s efficiency model rewards the company only for energy efficiency results. Customers who actively participate in the programs would reduce their power bills – enough to more than offset program costs. Duke Energy has energy efficiency plans pending for regulatory review in North Carolina, South Carolina and Indiana, and expects to make similar filings this year in Ohio and Kentucky.

“Saving energy should be as much a part of a utility’s mission as generating and delivering electricity,” said Rogers. “In developing a new approach to energy efficiency, we sought input from key stakeholders through a collaborative process that included statewide energy efficiency summits. Our collaboratives included customers, community leaders and environmental groups.”

EEI President Tom Kuhn added: “Utilities cannot expect to dramatically grow energy efficiency programs unless there is a fundamentally different approach, and Duke Energy has brought stakeholders together to find new approaches that can bring results. I want to congratulate Duke Energy for winning this year’s Advocacy Excellence Award.”

EEI is the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies with membership representing 70 percent of the electric power industry. The Advocacy Excellence Award program recognizes member companies that actively pursue public policy advocacy efforts.

Duke Energy
Duke Energy, one of the largest electric power companies in the United States, supplies and delivers energy to approximately 4 million U.S. customers. The company has nearly 37,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Midwest and the Carolinas, and natural gas distribution services in Ohio and Kentucky. In addition, Duke Energy has more than 4,000 megawatts of electric generation in Latin America, and is a joint-venture partner in a U.S. real estate company.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: www.duke-energy.com.