Southern Company

Engineer and entrepreneur James Mitchell founded the Alabama Traction, Light and Power Company in 1906, securing British investment. Southern Company describes it as the first of three foundational holding companies that would eventually evolve into Southern Company.⁠[1]

Mitchell envisioned an electric supply system and a regional grid serving energy markets across the Southeast. The holding company Southeastern Power & Light was acquired by Commonwealth and Southern (C&S) in 1929.⁠[2]

Wendell Willkie became CEO and president of C&S in 1934.⁠[3]

The present Southern Company was incorporated in Delaware in 1945, and its headquarters moved to Georgia in 1950.⁠[3]

In 1947 the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the formation of Southern Company as the parent of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Mississippi Power.⁠[2]

In 1949, four electric utility companies owned by C&S were combined into Southern Company, and its stock was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange on September 30, 1949.⁠[4]

Savannah Electric merged with Southern Company in 1988, and in July 2006 it merged with its sibling company Georgia Power.⁠[5]

On December 13, 2005, the boards of Southern Company, Savannah Electric and Georgia Power approved the merger plan. Southern Company then had more than 4 million customers and more than 40,000 megawatts of generating capacity.⁠[6]

In December 1999, Southern Company marked 50 years on the New York Stock Exchange. Chairman and CEO Bill Dahlberg said, “We’re not the same company we used to be.”⁠[4]

On April 3, 2001, Southern Company announced that it had completed the spinoff of Mirant Corporation (NYSE: MIR), distributing all of its 272 million Mirant shares to stockholders: holders of record on March 21, 2001, received 0.397614 Mirant shares for each Southern Company share.⁠[7]

On July 27, 2010, the board elected Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas A. Fanning as president effective August 1, 2010, and as chairman, president and CEO effective December 1, 2010, succeeding David M. Ratcliffe, who retired that day. Fanning had been COO since February 2008 and earlier served as CFO.⁠[8]

On May 9, 2016, Southern Company completed its acquisition of PowerSecure International, a provider of utility and energy technologies, for $18.75 in cash per share, a total purchase price of about $425 million; PowerSecure stock ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange.⁠[9]

On July 1, 2016, Southern Company completed its merger with natural gas utility AGL Resources, converting each AGL share into $66.00 in cash for a total purchase price of about $8 billion. With about 9 million customers, Southern Company became the second-largest U.S. utility by customer base.⁠[10]

After Westinghouse, the contractor for Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, went bankrupt in March 2017, Georgia Power reached new agreements with Westinghouse and its parent Toshiba on June 9 that affirmed Toshiba’s guarantee at $3.68 billion and moved project management from Westinghouse to Southern Nuclear and Georgia Power.⁠[11]

On June 28, 2017, Mississippi Power announced it would immediately suspend operations and start-up of the lignite gasification portion of the Kemper County Energy Facility. Total costs had crossed $7.5 billion, above the $2.88 billion cap set by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, which had said the plant should run only on natural gas.⁠[12]

In August 2017, Southern Company announced it would absorb an additional $2.8 billion in losses, bringing Kemper-related losses to nearly $6 billion.⁠[13]

On December 1, 2017, Mississippi Power reached an amended settlement with the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff and other parties providing no recovery of gasifier costs at any future date. Southern Company said SEC staff was closing its investigation without recommending an enforcement action.⁠[14]

In May 2018, Southern Company announced the sale of Gulf Power and other assets, including Florida City Gas, to NextEra EnergyNextEra EnergyNextEra Energy, Inc. is one of the largest electric power and energy infrastructure companies in North America. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, it owns Florida Power & Light (FPL), America’s largest electric utility, serving about 12 million people in Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, one of the largest energy infrastructure developers in the U.S.Open the full entry in a $6.5 billion deal. Gulf Power served 450,000 customers in eight counties in northwest Florida.⁠[15]

On January 1, 2019, the sale of Gulf Power closed, completing the sales of Gulf Power, Florida City Gas and the entities holding Southern Power’s interests in Plant Oleander and Plant Stanton. Fanning said the sales allowed the company “to fund our business without raising significant additional capital.”⁠[16]

On January 5, 2023, Southern Company announced a succession plan: Chris Womack, president of Georgia Power since 2020 and its chairman, president and CEO since 2021, would become president of Southern Company on March 31 and CEO after the 2023 annual meeting, with Fanning becoming executive chairman.⁠[17]

At the annual meeting on May 24, 2023, Womack became CEO, succeeding Fanning. He said, “Having grown up in southern Alabama in the 1960s and to stand where I am today is a very humbling experience.”⁠[18]

Vogtle Unit 3 entered commercial operation on July 31, 2023, and Unit 4 on April 29, 2024. The plant is operated by Southern Nuclear. Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene called them “the first newly constructed nuclear units in the U.S. in more than 30 years.”⁠[19]

The reactors were originally projected to cost $14 billion and be completed by 2017. The AP estimated their cost to Georgia Power and three other owners at $31 billion, nearing $35 billion with a $3.7 billion payment from Westinghouse. A 6% rate increase tied to Unit 4 was expected to add $8.97 a month for a typical residential customer.⁠[20]

On December 19, 2025, the Georgia Public Service Commission voted 5–0 to approve Georgia Power’s plan for about 10,000 megawatts of new capacity to meet projected data center demand, with 80% flowing to data centers; construction would cost $16.3 billion. Staff estimated customers would pay $50 billion to $60 billion over coming decades.⁠[21]

At December 31, 2025, Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Mississippi Power had about 4.59 million retail electric customers, Southern Company Gas served about 4.4 million gas customers in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee, and the company had about 29,800 employees.⁠[22]

For 2025, Southern Company had operating revenues of $29.553 billion (2024: $26.724 billion) and net income of $4.3 billion, or $3.94 per share (2024: $4.4 billion, or $4.02). Chairman, president and CEO Womack said, “2025 was another outstanding year for Southern Company, and it was also a transformative one.”⁠[23]

For the second quarter of 2026, Southern Company had operating revenues of $6.977 billion (prior-year quarter: $6.973 billion) and earnings of $1.2 billion, or $1.03 per share (prior-year quarter: $0.9 billion, or $0.80). First-half revenues were $15.4 billion, up from $14.7 billion.⁠[24]