And that's no accident.

Executives for the Raleigh utility scotched the idea of a grand centennial ball for employees as too extravagant, mindful that the company is requesting a 16 percent rate increase during an economic recession. Instead, they carefully themed the birthday party: a Summer of Service. Employees in the three states where Progress operates will volunteer for nonprofit groups during a summer philanthropy marathon.

The power company is also spending about $400,000 to thank and motivate workers. Most of the money will pay to produce a coffee table book about the company's history as a memento for about 11,000 employees and 4,000 retirees. The total also includes an allowance for department lunches and catering.

The upshot: Even a monopoly Fortune 500 corporation must humble itself before the customer, like any homegrown business grateful for the patronage.

"We'd be honored to be compared to the Hooterville Phone Company," said chief executive Bill Johnson. "We're not showy, we're not flashy. We're reliable. We're just normal people."

In good times, corporate parties have been testaments to excess, capitalist saturnalias rivaling Nero's Rome. The lurid details leak out in gossip columns and, later, in bankruptcy lawsuits. But the only public event Progress has staged was the distribution of 1,500 cupcakes to employees arriving at work Monday, a $3,500 outlay.

"This is as extravagant as it gets," Johnson said of the cupcake spread.

Not many public companies make it to 100, and most go through a string of name changes and business reorganizations along the way. In North Carolina, the list includes Pepsi, Reynolds Tobacco, First Citizens Bank, M&F Bank and The News & Observer. Some companies see themselves as public institutions and invite the public to the party: Last year M&F celebrated its centennial with a free public event in Durham featuring refreshments, live jazz and a tribute to the bank's founders.

Progress was formed as Carolina Power & Light with 983 customers in Raleigh. The utility now has 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. CP&L was renamed Progress Energy after acquiring Florida Progress in 2000. Florida Progress marked its 100th anniversary in 1999.

How will it look?

The centennial celebration was months in the making and executed gingerly with a sensitivity to public perception. Progress officials met in the spring and decided that 100 years was a milestone that deserved some type of commemoration.

"Our employees are out here 24 hours a day, seven days a week, doing this for 100 years, rain or shine, hot or cold," said Lloyd Yates, president and CEO of Progress Energy Carolinas. "Something this significant you can't pass up without some recognition."

The centennial celebration organizers, who included Johnson and several top executives, decided that the celebration should reflect Progress' values and image. The solution: Employees are encouraged to spend four hours on company time as volunteers.

More than 1,000 Progress employees are expected to sign up for 150 charitable projects over three months at food banks, rescue missions, Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCAs, United Way and Salvation Army centers. Johnson and other executives put in several hours on a Sunday last month packing meals for Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh organization.

"We had more than 100 volunteers, and they assembled and packaged 40,000 meals," said the group's director, Rod Brooks. "That's the largest amount that a single company has packaged. We believe it sets the bar for what other companies can do."

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