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Progress, Duke, Southern Company land nearly $470M in smart grid funds

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RALEIGH, N.C. – Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN) and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) as well as the Southern Company will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars – their own and from the federal government – to expand smart grid efforts in the Carolinas.

The three utilities were among the biggest winners in $3.4 billion worth of federal grants announced by the Obama administration on Tuesday.

Combined, the grants also established North Carolina customers and N.C.-based firms as the largest winners by far in the federal grants that will support projects across 49 states.

(For a list of projects by state, click here.)

(For a list of project area maps, click here.)

So-called smart grids are designed to improve communications and handling of the electrical infrastructure while also providing meters to enable conservation of power. The grid efforts also will include in some cases plug-ins for electric vehicles and other emerging technology.

Duke, Progress and Southern combined will contribute more than $1.6 billion of their own funds for the projects.

Progress, which is based in Raleigh, will receiving $200 million from the government and invest $520 million for its smart grid project. A key to the Progress plan is the development of a “virtual” power plant through conservation, advanced grid load sharing and more than 160,000 meters.

Duke committed $851.7 million and will receive $200 million federal dollars for its grid modernization and smart metering project in its Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky service areas. Smart meters are to be placed with 1.4 million customers.

In a second project, Duke will invested $7.9 million and the government is providing $3.9 million to upgrade substations and communications in North Carolina.

Southern, which is based in Alabama, plans to spend $330 million and will receive $164.5 million from the government for its smart grid project across the Carolinas, Mississippi, Florida and Georgia.

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