Duke Energy bought a 7.5-percent ownership stake in the proposed and previously announced $3-billion Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline that will traverse Alabama, Georgia and Florida to meet the growing need for natural gas in those states. Duke Energy's commercial power business unit will invest approximately $225 million in the approximately 500-mile underground pipeline - from Tallapoosa County, Ala., to Osceola County, Fla. - during the next seven years. The pipeline, scheduled to begin service in 2017, requires federal and other regulatory approvals. Sabal Trail Transmission, a joint venture of the pipeline's owners - Spectra Energy, NextEra Energy, and now Duke Energy - seeks to secure those approvals by early 2016 and begin pipeline construction later that year.
