Duke Energy has named a new president for North Carolina, replacing Brett Carter with senior vice president Paul Newton.

The moves continue a recent shuffle of top executives at Duke, which merged last year with Raleigh-based Progress Energy. New state presidents have also been named since mid-2012 in South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio and Kentucky.

Newton is a special adviser to Duke CEO Jim Rogers. He’s been with Duke since 1990 and served 18 years as legal counsel for the company’s utility operations, later working as senior vice president of strategy, rates, wholesale customers, commodities and analytics.

Carter, Duke’s state president since 2008, becomes chief distribution officer and senior vice president for Duke’s six-state territory. It’s a new position that will be based in Charlotte. Carter is this year’s chair of the Charlotte Chamber.

He will have responsibility for the 250,000-mile distribution system that directly links customers to the electric grid in the Carolinas, the Midwest and Florida.

“With the growing emphasis on grid modernization and on standardizing distribution operations as much as possible, the decision was made that this was an important position,” said spokesman Mike Hughes. A second executive oversees Duke’s 32,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines.

Carter will report to Keith Trent, chief operating officer for regulated utilities.

Newton will be based in Raleigh and report to Lloyd Yates, executive vice president for regulated utilities. A settlement of the N.C. Utilities Commission’s investigation of the Duke-Progress merger, approved in December, specified Duke’s state president be based in Raleigh.

Newton will have overall responsibility for rates and regulatory affairs, government relations, economic development and community affairs.

The company’s Duke Energy Carolinas and Progress Energy Carolinas utilities serve 3.2 million North Carolina customers. They have 7.1 million customers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Florida.

Henderson: 704-358-5051 Twitter: @bhender