Vectren completes merger with Houston company

Vectren Corp., parent company of the region’s natural gas provider, has completed a merger with a Houston energy company.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. and Vectren earlier this month announced the completion of the merger. The newly merged business will have a new name — CenterPoint Energy — and a new logo. But customers need to do nothing differently as far as managing accounts or paying bills, the company said.

Vectren and CenterPoint Energy announced the plan last year. The combined company will have its headquarters in Houston. The company’s natural gas utilities operation and Indiana electric operation will be based in Evansville.

Vectren provides gas and/or electricity to more than 1 million people in nearly two-thirds of Indiana and about 20 percent of Ohio, mostly counties in west-central Ohio, including the Dayton area. The combined company has regulated electric and natural gas utility businesses in eight states that serve more than 7 million metered customers. many partners, including Ohio University and the Russ Research Center in Beavercreek,” Tim Shaw, SP vice president, said. “Our team has spent the past several months focusing all (SP Global’s) efforts on designing a revolutionary consortium that centers on our members bringing the best in autonomy innovation to the Air Force and to our warfighters.”

Asked Monday whether the project will mean new Dayton-area jobs, Shaw said: “That is what we are hoping for — to bring this research all the way to commercialization, and that would mean jobs.”

The research project — dubbed “ARCNet” — will be located at Ohio University’s Russ Research Center. The center is a 60-acre high-tech research park in the 2600- and 2700-block of Indian Ripple Road.

Ken Wall, former FBI supervisory special agent, has been hired to direct the project, the company’s announcement said. The chief executive of SP’s parent company, SPG Holding LLC CEO Thomas Burns, hailed the news.