By Michael Erman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Duke Energy Corp
The stock-based deal would come at a low premium to Progress' $13.1 billion market value, one source said.
The companies hope to announce the deal on Monday, according to another source, but the talks could still be delayed or even derailed.
Both electricity generating companies are based in North Carolina and serve clients in North and South Carolina. Duke serves some markets in the Midwestern United States and Progress also supplies customers in Florida.
If the deal is completed, Duke would be adding Progress' more than 22,000 megawatts of generation capacity to its fleet of power plants, which has a capacity of 35,000 megawatts. One megawatt can power an average of 1,000 U.S. homes.
Duke last year lost out on a bid for the U.S. assets of German utility E.ON
The U.S. power industry has seen a resurgence of deal activity in the past year, including FirstEnergy's
But tough requirements from U.S. state regulators, who often oppose large mergers on fears that prices could rise and services could decline, could stymie consolidation in the utility sector. State regulators have sought drastic concessions in the past in the form of rate reductions from companies planning to merge.
In a previous wave of consolidation that took place during the middle of the last decade, planned mergers of FPL Group
Duke and Progress were not immediately available for a comment.
(Reporting by Michael Erman, editing by Maureen Bavdek)