Duke Energy Retains Stable Level of Migrated Load at Duke Energy Ohio

Duke Energy is serving 72% of retail generation load at Duke Energy Ohio, either through utility Standard Service Offer sales or sales by affiliate Duke Energy Retail Sales.

That is down slightly from the 73% of sales served by a Duke Energy company as of March 31, 2011, but executives noted during an earnings call that net migration has remained stable over the past year. In July 2010, 75% of retail generation at Duke Energy Ohio was served by the utility or Duke Energy Retail Sales.

The marginal increase in net migration since March 31, 2011 was at the expense of Duke Energy Retail Sales, as Duke Energy Ohio's share of retail generation sales has remained constant at 33% since March 2011.

Duke Energy Retail Sales' market share at Duke Energy Ohio dropped one percentage point from 40% in March 2011 to 39% in June 2011. These retail sales were assumed by non-affiliated competitive suppliers, who increased their market share at Duke Energy Ohio from 27% to 28% during the same timeframe.

Stated another way, Duke Energy Retail Sales is serving just under 60% of migrated volumes at Duke Energy Ohio.

For the balance of the year, Duke Energy executives said that they do not expect to see significant financial impact from additional customer switching.

Duke Energy's Commercial Power segment reported lower adjusted EBIT of $59 million for the second quarter, versus $89 million a year ago, largely due to the net impact of customer switching, which negatively impacted earnings by $49 million.

Improved results from Commercial Power's Midwest gas assets partially offset negative drivers and improved the segment's earnings by $24 million.