Southern Company

Southern Company is an American gas and electric utility holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is the second largest utility company in the U.S. in terms of customer base, as of 2021. Through its subsidiaries it serves 9 million gas and electric utility customers in 6 states. Southern Company's regulated regional electric utilities serve a territory with of distribution lines.

Overview

Southern Company is one of the largest energy providers in the United States and is ranked 126th on the Fortune 500 listing of the largest U.S. corporations. The company has approximately 31,300 employees. It has more than 500,000 shareholders (NYSE: SO) and has been traded since September 30, 1949.

Southern Company subsidiaries are operating or developing renewable: solar, wind, and biomass facilities across the U.S., as well as the first new nuclear units in the U.S. in 30 years at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Georgia.

Southern Company's three retail operating companies—Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Mississippi Power—serve in three states. Southern Power serves wholesale electricity customers across the U.S. Southern Company Gas serves utility customers in seven states.

Southern Company owns the following companies:
* Alabama Power - operating company, based in Birmingham, Alabama. Serves the southern two-thirds of Alabama.
* Georgia Power - operating company, based in Atlanta. Serves all of Georgia, except for mostly rural counties.
* Mississippi Power - operating company, based in Gulfport, Mississippi. Serves the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
*Southern Company Services (originally named Southern Services, Inc.) - Birmingham, Alabama - Common Services
*Southern Linc - cellular telephone provider - Atlanta, Georgia
*Southern Nuclear - engineering and operations for nuclear power plants - Birmingham, Alabama. (Southern Company is the majority owner and operator of the Farley, Hatch, and Vogtle nuclear power plants.)
* Southern Company Generation - fossil fuels and hydro operations - Birmingham, Alabama.
* Southern Power - wholesale power generation - Birmingham, Alabama.
* Southern Telecom - wholesale fiber optic communications and data services - Atlanta, Georgia.
*Southern Company Gas - serves gas utility customers and operates natural gas pipelines - Atlanta, Georgia.
* PowerSecure - distributed infrastructure technologies - Wake Forest, North Carolina.
*Atlanta Gas Light - provides natural gas delivery service to more than 1.6 million customers in Georgia.
* Chattanooga Gas - provides retail natural gas sales and transportation services to approximately 66,000 customers in Hamilton and Bradley counties in southeast Tennessee.
* Nicor Gas - Provider of natural gas throughout northern Illinois.
* Virginia Natural Gas - Provider of Natural Gas in southeastern Virginia.
* Sequent Energy Management - optimizes natural gas assets and effectively utilize transportation and storage services.
* Southern Wholesale Energy - markets the retail operating companies' surplus generating capacity to the wholesale market.
* Southern Company Transmission - conducts transmission business in accordance with the Southern Companies Open Access Transmission Tariff approved by FERC.

Prior to 2019, Southern Company also owned Gulf Power, an electric utility based in Pensacola, Florida that serves most of the Florida Panhandle. An agreement was reached in May 2018 to sell Gulf Power to rival utility company NextEra Energy. The sale was completed on January 1, 2019. Gulf Power would become the Northwest Florida division of Florida Power & Light (FPL) in 2021, with the Gulf Power name retired in favor of FPL in 2022.

History

Southern Company can be traced back to 1924, when Southeastern Power & Light was formed as a holding company for Alabama Traction, Light and Power (formed 1906), the immediate forerunner of Alabama Power. Later that year, it formed Mississippi Power as a subsidiary, with Gulf Power following in 1925. In 1926, it merged with Georgia Power (formed 1902). In 1930, Southeastern Power & Light merged into the Commonwealth & Southern Corporation. The new system included five Northern companies and six Southern companies. However, in the late 1940s Commonwealth & Southern was dissolved to meet the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. Four of Commonwealth & Southern's Deep South operating companies—Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power—were deemed to be an integrated system and thus were allowed to remain under common ownership. A new holding company, Southern Company, was incorporated in Delaware on November 9, 1945. It commenced operation in 1949, and moved to Georgia in 1950. In 1954–55, the company was involved in the Dixon-Yates contract with the Atomic Energy Commission, and the associated political controversy.

In 1981, Southern Company became the first electric utility holding company in 46 years to diversify its operations by forming an unregulated subsidiary. In January 1982, Southern Energy, Inc., began official operations as a global energy company, growing to serve 10 countries on four continents. On April 2, 2001, Southern Company completed the spinoff of Southern Energy as Mirant Corporation.

Another Southern Company subsidiary—Southern Nuclear—began providing services in 1991 to the system's nuclear power plants.

In 1996, Southern Communications Services began providing digital wireless communications services to Southern Company's subsidiaries and also began marketing these services to the public within the Southeast as Southern Linc. Southern Telecom, a telecommunications subsidiary of Southern Company, was founded in 1997. Southern Telecom provides colocation and dark fiber optic lines to network businesses.

On January 9, 2001, Southern Company received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to form Southern Power, a subsidiary to own, manage and finance wholesale generating assets in the Southeast. The new subsidiary targets wholesale customers.

On July 19, 2002, Southern Company Gas received certification from the Georgia Public Service Commission to enter the retail gas market. After nearly four years of operations, the company was sold and customers transferred to Cobb EMC's newly formed affiliate, Gas South.

In 2011, Southern Company and Turner Renewable Energy purchased a 30 MW solar project from First Solar. Located in Cimarron, New Mexico, it began generating electricity in 2011.

In June 2012, the Nacogdoches Generating Facility began its commercial operation. The facility is a 115 MW biomass-fueled electric generating plant, located near Sacul in Nacogdoches County, Texas.

In 2016, Southern Company acquired PowerSecure, a distributed energy infrastructure technologies company, and AGL Resources (which was renamed Southern Company Gas). As a result of the AGL Resources merger, Southern Company doubled its customer base, expanded its footprint and broadened the scope of its business by increasing its natural gas presence.

Plant Vogtle

Southern Company subsidiaries operate hydroelectric, gas, coal, and nuclear generation sources to generate approximately 200 terawatt-hours of electricity. In 2009, coal represented 57 percent of the company's output, followed by nuclear (23%) and natural gas (16%). Renewable hydroelectric power represented 4 percent of Southern's generation. Coal-based generation dropped significantly in 2009 from an average of 70% between 2005 and 2008. As of 2017 Coal-based generation had dropped to 30%.

In June 2010, the United States Department of Energy awarded an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to facilitate the construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta, Georgia. A Southern Company subsidiary, Georgia Power, owns 45.7% of the current 2,430 MW facility, with co-owners Oglethorpe Power (30%) Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and the City of Dalton (1.6%). The plant is operated by Georgia Power. The $14 billion construction project is scheduled to be completed by 2022 and would double the plant's capacity.

The construction of two 1,154 MW reactors has been hailed by Energy Secretary Steven Chu

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases