Southern Company Timeline

1600s
1600s

William Gilbert
- English scientist William Gilbert coins the term "electricity" in 1600; early experiments are with static electricity.
1700s
1700s

Benjamin Franklin
- Dutch instrument-maker Pieter van Musschenbroek invents the Leyden jar in 1746, used to store a small charge of static electricity.
- Benjamin Franklin flies his famous kite in 1752 to prove lightning is electricity.
- James Watt perfects early steam engines in 1782 and coins the word "horsepower" to measure output. The capacity of early electric generators is measured in "horsepower" until the twentieth century, when the standard becomes "watts" in honor of the Scottish inventor.
Early 1800s
Early 1800s
- Italy's Alessandro Volta manufactures the first practical commercial battery in 1800; "volt" becomes the term for measuring electromotive force or pressure.
- English chemist Humphry Davy invents the first arc lamp in 1808.
- The first U.S. energy utility, Gas Light Company of Baltimore, is formed in 1816.
- In 1819, Denmark's Hans Christian Oersted creates a magnet using electrical current, a basic principle leading to the invention of the electric motor.
- In 1831, English physicist Michael Faraday generates electricity using a magnet and spinning copper plate.
- The first dynamo to generate electricity is built in 1832 using Faraday's principles.
- Thomas Davenport patents the first electric motor.
1870s
1870s

Thomas Alva Edison
- Belgium's Z.T. Gramme develops the first effective dynamo capable of producing electricity for industrial or commercial use in 1870.
- The first U.S. outdoor electric lights are installed at Cornell University in 1875.
- Exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, arc lighting becomes the standard for electric street lighting technology; heat and brightness make it unsuitable for indoor use.
- Thomas Alva Edison invents the incandescent light bulb in 1879. The "Electric Age" begins; Edison will invent more than 1,000 uses of electricity over the next 50 years.
1880s
1880
- The "great white way," a mile of arc lighting, is installed along New York's Broadway.
- The first industrial use of hydro power is at a factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
1882
1882
- Woodstock Iron Company of Anniston generates Alabama's first street lighting and industrial use of electricity.
- Savannah's first electric utility, Brush Electric Light & Power, is formed.
- In South Carolina, the first electric street lights appear in Charleston.
- French engineer Marcel Deprez proves electricity can be transmitted long distances.
- Edison Electric Illuminating Company's Pearl Street plant in New York City becomes the nation's first central generating station, distributing electricity to 59 customers using direct current (DC); Thomas Edison becomes the most influential advocate for DC power developments.
- The first commercial hydro plant opens on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin.
1883
1883

Arc Light in Savannah, Georgia
- Georgia Electric Light Company of Atlanta, predecessor of Georgia Power, organizes and begins building its first generating plant.
- First electric street lights are installed in Savannah and Montgomery.
- The nation's first electric tramway is installed in Richmond, Virginia.
1884
1884
- Atlanta's first electric street lights are installed.
- England's Charles Parsons invents the steam turbine.
1885
1885
- The National Electric Light Association, the industry's first association, is formed.
1886
1886

Montgomery Streetcar
- Alabama's first electric streetcar begins service in Montgomery.
- Charleston Electric Light Company is incorporated; it is the first in a linage of companies that two decades later will be consolidated into South Carolina Power.
- First commercial alternating current (AC) generated in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
- George Westinghouse founds Westinghouse Electric Company and becomes the most influential advocate for AC power developments.
- Nationwide, up to 50 small hydro plants are either operating or under construction; the early hydro plants generate DC power distributed short distances from the site.
1887
1887
- Pensacola Electric Company, a forerunner of Gulf Power, is incorporated and begins constructing its first power plant.
1888
1888
- First electric street lights are installed in Pensacola.
- Atlanta's first electric street railway line begins operations.
1889
1889
- The first commercial, long distance transmission of direct current is sent from Oregon's Willamette Falls to the city of Portland.
- National Association of Regulatory Commissioners is formed originally as an association of railway commissioners, who later extend oversight to utilities.
1891
1891

Henry M. Atkinson
- Henry M. Atkinson takes over ownership of the Georgia Electric Light Company of Atlanta and replaces it with newly formed company by the same name.
1892
1892
- Georgia Electric Light constructs a plant on Davis Street and provides Atlanta's first "around the clock" service for commercial and industrial use.
- General Electric Company is created from the merger of the Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company.
1894
1894

Bilozi Electric Light Company
- Biloxi Electric Light Company is incorporated; it is the first in a linage of companies that later will become part of Mississippi Power.
1895
1895
- The first hydro generator producing alternating current is installed at Niagara Falls, New York. In a "battle of the currents," industry leaders debate the merits of AC and DC.
- Atlanta hosts the Cotton States and International Exposition, with Atkinson serving as the event's "chief of electricity." Prominent Atlantans install electric lights in their homes, the first residential service for Georgia Electric Light.
1896
1896
- George Westinghouse transmits alternating current long distance from Niagara Falls to Buffalo. AC soon becomes the industry standard for generating and transmitting power long distances, a development that accelerates the building of giant hydro projects and large-scale steam plants.
1897
1897
- Atkinson fends off the first of many municipal takeover threats; "private vs. public" will become a recurring theme in industry debates over utility ownership.
1898
1898
- Industry leader Samuel Insull proposes state regulation as a solution to the problem of how to govern rates and service standards; nine years later, Wisconsin, New York, and Massachusetts become the first to install utility regulatory commissions.
1899
1899
- Atkinson's company and Joel Hurt's Atlanta Railway and Power Company wage competitive warfare over control of the city's power and railway business; the two-year clash is called the "second battle of Atlanta."
1900
1900
- Westinghouse manufactures the first public utility steam turbine generator.
1901
1901

Preston S. Arkwright
- The Atkinson-Hurt feud ends with Atkinson buying out Hurt's interests. Preston S. Arkwright is named a vice president of Georgia Electric Light and facilitates its consolidation with Atlanta Railway and Power.
- Following William McKinley's assassination, Theodore Roosevelt becomes president and earns a reputation as a "trust buster" and father of the conservation movement.
1902
1902
- Georgia Railway and Electric Company is chartered on January 28 to merge the two enterprises previously controlled by Atkinson and Hurt; Arkwright is elected president of the new company and Atkinson continues as chairman.
- Alabama's first major hydroelectric plant, built by Montgomery Light & Power on the Tallapoosa River, sends electricity over a 25-mile transmission line to Montgomery.
- Savannah Electric Company is formed by the merger of Brush Electric Light & Power, Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Savannah, and various streetcar and railway businesses.
1903
1903
- Georgia Railway and Electric buys Atlanta Gas Light Company, which has 11,000 customers, eight times more than Atkinson and Arkwright have in electric customers. The company also buys Atlanta Steam Company and provides heat to Atlanta's downtown buildings, using exhaust steam from power plants.
- To promote its streetcar business, Georgia Railway and Electric builds the Ponce de Leon Amusement Park.
- In Mississippi, Biloxi Electric Light is purchased by the Biloxi Electric Railway & Power Company.
1904
1904

Morgan Falls Hydro Electric Plant
- Atlanta's first hydro power comes from a plant built by the Atlanta Water and Electric Power Company on the Chattahoochee River at Bull Sluice (later named Morgan Falls); Georgia Railway and Electric buys the plant's entire output.
1905
1905
- Biloxi Electric Railway & Power is acquired by the Gulfport and Mississippi Coast Traction Company.
1906
1906

William P. Lay
- William P. Lay, Alabama's promoter of the Coosa River, incorporates the first Alabama Power Company on December 4 in Gadsden.
- The Muscle Shoals Hydro-Electric Power Company is formed in northwest Alabama, and acquires Tennessee River sites that years later will become Wilson and Wheeler dams. Numerous other companies interested in developing Alabama waterways are formed over the next two years.
- Pensacola Electric Company acquires the city's and Escambia County's street railway systems.
1907
1907
- President Roosevelt signs a bill authorizing Alabama Power to construct Lock 12 Dam on the Coosa River; Lay begins a five-year search for construction funds. Because the conservation movement produces a national debate over water power rights, Lock 12 will become the last dam permit issued on navigable rivers until 1920.
- The Savannah River Power Company organizes and develops a small hydro plant near Anderson, S.C., and acquires land for a proposed dam at nearby Clark's Hill.
- Across the street from its amusement park on Ponce de Leon Avenue, Georgia Railway and Electric builds a new ballpark that becomes home to the Atlanta Crackers.
1908
1908

Early GPC Linemen
- The first Georgia Power Company is formed by C. Elmer Smith and other promoters who create the firm while trying to bail out the financially struggling North Georgia Electric Company, which owns water power sites in north Georgia, including Tallulah Falls, and has a 2,000-kilowatt hydro plant near present-day Buford Dam.
1910
1910

Tallualah Railway
- C. Elmer Smith buys the properties of North Georgia Electric and begins constructing the Tallulah Falls Dam the following year; Smith also controls Atlanta Water and Electric Power, the Etowah Power Company, and Savannah River Power.
1911
1911

Survey Crew
- Energy pioneer and developer James Mitchell arrives in Alabama and conceives a plan for bringing divergent interests together to develop the state's vast water power resources and transmit power across a large Southeastern market.
- The Alabama Power Development Company, one of the companies eventually pulled into Mitchell's plan, completes a small hydroelectric plant at Jackson Shoals near Talladega and begins constructing a steam plant at Gadsden.
- Willis Carrier invents air conditioning. GE unveils an electric refrigerator invented by a French monk.
1912
1912

James Mitchell
- Mitchell forms Alabama Traction Light & Power, the first holding company in Southern Company's lineage. Incorporated on January 5 in Montreal, Canada, and largely funded by British investors, Alabama Traction buys Alabama Power, Muscle Shoals Hydro-Electric Power, Alabama Interstate Power, Alabama Electric Company, Wetumpka Power Company, Alabama Power Development Company, and nearly a dozen other energy companies in Alabama.
- The Georgia Railway & Power Company is created when Atkinson agrees to combine his interests with those of C. Elmer Smith, who is in financial trouble over the cost of Tallulah Falls construction. After the merger, Atkinson is chairman, Arkwright is president, and Smith is the largest stockholder.
- President William H. Taft vetoes a bill authorizing Alabama Power to build a dam at Coosa River's Lock 18; the company will be unable to get any new dam permits approved over the next eight years as Congress continues to debate water power rights.
1913
1913

Transformers at Plant Gadsen
- Plant Gadsden, Alabama Power's first steam plant, is placed in service.
- In a Georgia lawsuit contesting land titles, the state supreme court rules in favor of Georgia Railway & Power, allowing the delayed construction at Tallulah Falls to move forward.
1914
1914
- With five units completed and operating, Tallulah Falls becomes the third largest hydroelectric plant in the United States.
- Georgia Railway & Power makes its first interconnection with Southern Power Company (later named Duke Power). Through other interconnections in the region, power is exchanged across four states, a network later known as the Great Southern Grid.
- On the Coosa River, Lock 12 (later named Lay Dam) is completed, and Alabama Power begins serving Birmingham Railway, Light & Power, its largest wholesale customer.
- Alabama Traction and Alabama Power are pushed near bankruptcy when the outbreak of World War I cuts off funds from British investors.
1915
1915
- Numerous Alabama utilities owned by Alabama Traction are consolidated into Alabama Power. The company fends off another bankruptcy threat by winning what becomes known as the "mosquito lawsuits," filed by residents near Lay Dam.
- Georgia Railway & Power completes work on Mathis Dam, a storage reservoir that forms Lake Rabun in north Georgia.
1916
1916

Plant Gorgas
- First unit of the Warrior Steam Plant (later named Plant Gorgas) is completed in Alabama.
- Georgia Railway & Power expands service to several north Georgia communities by purchasing Gainesville Railway and Power Company and Franklin Light and Power Company.
- Thirty-three states have installed utility regulatory agencies; along with approving franchises and rates, commissions charge utilities with an "obligation to serve."
1917
1917
- The United States enters World War I, and the War Department selects Muscle Shoals as a site for manufacturing nitrates needed for explosives.
1918
1918
- Mitchell donates his company's properties at Muscle Shoals, where the government builds two nitrates plants and a giant hydro development (later named Wilson Dam). The government also builds a steam plant at Sheffield and funds construction of Unit 2 at Alabama Power's Plant Gorgas, with provisions for the company to buy the unit back after the war.
- Alabama Power furnishes the electricity needed to make nitrates at Muscle Shoals just prior to World War I ending on November 11.
1919
1919
- Georgia Railway & Power builds Burton Dam in north Georgia.
1920
1920
- James Mitchell dies and Thomas W. Martin becomes president of Alabama Traction and Alabama Power. Martin launches Alabama Power's first rural electrification and industrial recruitment programs.
- Georgia Railway & Power builds the state's first radio station, initially used for communications with crews in north Georgia; two years later, the radio equipment is sold to the Atlanta Constitution and later donated to the Georgia Institute of Technology.
- President Woodrow Wilson signs into law the Federal Water Power Act, which creates the Federal Power Commission, responsible for issuing licenses and regulating hydro projects on the nation's rivers.
1921
1921
- The first interconnection is completed between Alabama Power and Georgia Railway & Power.
- Henry Ford offers to buy partially built Wilson Dam and other war-surplus facilities at Muscle Shoals, including the Gorgas unit promised to Alabama Power. Martin makes a competing bid, launching the first of many battles for Muscle Shoals assets.
- Savannah Electric Company, Savannah Power, and Chatham County Traction Company merge to form Savannah Electric and Power Company.
1922
1922
- Alabama Power starts the first radio station in Alabama and donates the facilities the following year to what is now Auburn University.
- Georgia Railway & Power completes Tugalo Dam in north Georgia.
1923
1923

Mitchell Dam Workers
- Mitchell Dam, Alabama Power's second major hydro development on the Coosa River, begins commercial operation.
- First interconnection is completed between Alabama Power and Columbus (Georgia) Electric Power Company.
- Pressing the government to honor its wartime agreement, Martin is able to buy Gorgas Unit 2, but the battle over Muscle Shoals assets continues for another decade.
- Savannah Lighting Company, last of the city's electric utility competitors, is merged into Savannah Electric and Power.
1924
1924
- Southeastern Power & Light, the second holding company in Southern Company's lineage, is incorporated on September 2, replacing Alabama Traction, Light & Power. With Tom Martin as president and Eugene A. Yates as vice president and general manager, the new company begins expanding across the Southeast.
- Mississippi Power Company is incorporated on November 24 as a subsidiary of Southeastern Power & Light; Barney Eaton becomes its first president.
- Gulf Electric Company is incorporated August 11 as a subsidiary of Southeastern Power & Light with a goal of acquiring utilities in south Alabama and the panhandle of Florida; its properties are later consolidated into Alabama Power and Gulf Power.
- Eight southern power companies join Alabama Power in making an unsuccessful bid for Muscle Shoals. Alabama Power buys the Sheffield Company and begins serving the Tri-Cities in the Muscle Shoals area but still is unable to buy Wilson Dam.
1925
1925
- Mississippi Power officially begins operating on January 1 by acquiring the Gulfport and Mississippi Coast Traction Company.
- Georgia Railway & Power completes the Terrora and Yonah plants in north Georgia, but a severe drought forces power cuts to customers; discussions begin with Martin on a possible combination with Southeastern Power & Light.
- Gulf Power Company is organized on October 29 as a subsidiary of Southeastern Power & Light.
- The government completes construction of Wilson Dam; Alabama Power buys the power output while Congressional debates continue over Muscle Shoals assets.
- Congress asks the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the so-called "power trust" – the claim that General Electric controlled most of the nation's utilities; the probe later absolves GE but raises questions about the rise of large holding companies.
1926
1926

Georgia Power Company Logo
- Southeastern Power & Light acquires Georgia Railway & Power on April 1, reorganizes it as Georgia Power Company that fall, and begins other utility acquisitions in the state. Arkwright, who continues as president, coins "a citizen wherever we serve" as Georgia Power begins moving into new territory.
- Completion of the Nacoochee dam makes the north Georgia hydro group of six dams and powerhouses an engineering sensation – the largest stair-stepped waterway development in the nation.
- Gulf Power officially becomes an operating utility on February 6 when it acquires the Chipley Light & Power Company; Francis B. Carter becomes its first president. Service to Panama City begins in March; Pensacola Electric is merged into Gulf Power in May; and the company begins expanding to other towns in west Florida.
- A September hurricane severely damages Gulf Power's plant on Barrack and Main streets; it takes two months to restore service.
- Mississippi Power acquires utility systems in 17 additional communities.
- South Carolina Power Company is incorporated on December 17 as a subsidiary of Southeastern Power & Light; Benjamin A. Hagood is its first president.
- Twelve utilities join Alabama Power in a new but unsuccessful bid for Muscle Shoals.
- Alabama Power marketing manager A.B. Collins creates cartoon character Reddy Kilowatt, which will become a mascot for electric utilities nationwide.
1927
1927
- Georgia Power completes the consolidation of numerous railway and power properties in Georgia, including those in Athens, Rome, Milledgeville, Brunswick, and Macon; operations in the 30,000-mile territory are organized into geographical divisions.
- Martin Dam begins operations on the Tallapoosa River; at 168 feet high, the dam creates one of the largest artificial reservoirs in the world.
- Alabama Power becomes a statewide utility with the consolidation of properties held by Houston Power Company and Gulf Electric Company, which were serving the southern third of the state.
- South Carolina Power becomes an operating company by acquiring several of Charleston's gas, electric, and railway businesses.
- Mississippi Power's territory expands to include most major cities and towns in the eastern half of the state from the Gulf to the Tennessee border; inside that footprint, it will extend service to nearly 200 communities over the next three years.
1928
1928
- Southeastern Power & Light acquires the Augusta-Aiken Railway & Electric Company and the Georgia-Carolina Power Company; the properties are merged into Georgia Power and South Carolina Power.
- Georgia Power acquires additional utilities in the Macon area.
- South Carolina Power acquires the Edisto Public Service Company, serving communities south of Charleston. Stuart Cooper is named president early in the year, but is replaced by F.P. Cummings in November.
- Alabama Power completes a new hydro plant near Tallassee (later named Yates Dam).
- Carter resigns as Gulf Power president; Martin picks up the title in addition to his other duties.
- The Federal Trade Commission launches a new, seven-year investigation of the nation's electric utilities, with emphasis on the financial structures and activities of large holding companies.
- President Calvin Coolidge vetoes a bill to make Muscle Shoals a public power venture.
- Preston Arkwright becomes the 1928-1929 president of National Electric Light Association.
1929
1929
- Southeastern Power & Light is taken over by Commonwealth & Southern, a new conglomerate incorporated on May 23; B.C. Cobb is named chairman and Tom Martin president. In addition to Southeastern's five operating companies, C&S includes the Tennessee Electric Power Company, Consumers Power Company, Central Illinois Light Company, Southern Indiana Gas & Electric, Ohio Edison Company, and Pennsylvania Power Company.
- Georgia Power sells Atlanta Gas Light, as well as other gas operations in Athens, Brunswick, and Decatur, to Central Public Service Corporation of Chicago.
- Jordan Dam is completed and begins operations.
- The stock market crashes in October, accelerating a nationwide economic collapse that brings on the Great Depression.
1930
1930
- Southeastern Power & Light is dissolved following its merger into Commonwealth & Southern.
- Columbus Electric & Power, serving 70 Georgia towns, is consolidated into Georgia Power. The acquisition also includes four hydro plants – the Flint River, North Highlands, Goat Rock, and Bartlett's Ferry dams.
- Georgia Power buys the Langdale and Riverview dams on the Chattahoochee River from private groups and extends service to several other south Georgia communities.
- The first unit of Plant Atkinson, near Atlanta, begins operating.
- Alabama Power completes a hydro facility on the lower Tallassee River (later named Thurlow Dam).
- L.A. Magraw is named president of South Carolina Power.
1931
1931
- Its earnings and load declining, C&S reduces dividends on its common stock and discontinues work on several plants, including Furman Shoals in Georgia (site of later constructed Lake Sinclair).
- Robert W. Williamson becomes president of Gulf Power.
- Another Muscle Shoals bill is vetoed by President Herbert Hoover, who opposes the government entering the electricity business in competition with private utilities.
1932
1932
- Martin resigns as president of Commonwealth & Southern effective June 28 but remains on the board as Alabama Power president; Cobb becomes both chairman and president of C&S.
- Eugene A. Yates is named executive coordinator of the Southern Group, C&S's six operating companies in the South; he also becomes president of South Carolina Power.
- C&S discontinues paying dividends on its common stock after March 1 as electricity sales fall during the Depression.
- President Hoover's attempt to reach a public-private compromise on Muscle Shoals dies in congressional committee hearings.
- Samuel Insull declares bankruptcy, sending into receivership one of the nation's largest utility empires.
1933
1933
- Attorney Wendell Willkie becomes president of Commonwealth & Southern on January 24.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office on March 4, stops a panic run on banks, and summons a special session of Congress to begin enacting numerous New Deal measures.
- On May 18, President Roosevelt signs the Tennessee Valley Authority Act into law. TVA takes over Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, begins building a series of other dams on the Tennessee River, and becomes a major competitor for utilities operating in the Tennessee Valley.
- Established in June, the Public Works Administration soon begins providing grants and low-interest loans to municipalities that want to build public power projects or take over private utility operations.
- Alabama Power develops the "Objective Rate Plan," an incentive-pricing program to get customers to use more electricity and reverse the declining trend in electric load.
- The newly created Edison Electric Institute replaces the National Electric Light Association as the group representing America's investor-owned utilities.
1934
1934

Trial of Samuel Insull
- Tupelo, Mississippi, previously served by Mississippi Power, becomes the nation's first city to receive TVA power.
- Willkie negotiates C&S's first major sale to TVA; Mississippi Power turns over facilities and service in nine counties, and Tennessee Electric Power turns over a site that will become the Norris Dam site near Knoxville. But Alabama property transfers to TVA and 14 municipalities are delayed by a stockholder lawsuit known as the Ashwander case.
- With Cobb's retirement, C&S eliminates the title of chairman and gives CEO duties to Willkie; operating company executives replace bankers on the C&S board.
- In the depths of the Depression, C&S net earnings are in the red $1.55 million; the company cuts its preferred stock dividend in half.
- Trying to "sell" the company out of its troubles, Willkie launches a marketing push – promoting electric appliances and cutting rates for customers increasing power usage under the "Objective Rate Plan." By yearend, sales increase nearly 10 percent and will increase more than 14 percent the following year.
- Gulf Power buys the Florida Public Utilities Company, near Pensacola, and South Carolina Power buys the South Carolina Public Service Company.
- Samuel Insull, ex-utility tycoon, is found innocent of fraud in a nationally sensationalized trial.
1935
1935

Barney Eaton
- On August 26, FDR signs the Public Utility Holding Company Act into law, mandating the breakup of large conglomerates and the regulation of approved holding companies by the Securities and Exchange Commission; C&S joins a group of utilities in contesting PUHCA's constitutionality.
- By executive order, President Roosevelt creates the Rural Electrification Administration to provide loans to cooperatives organizing to serve rural areas and small towns.
- With backing from Willkie, Barney Eaton saves Mississippi Power from bankruptcy by working out agreements with preferred stockholders who have filed numerous lawsuits.
- Plaintiffs in the Ashwander case secure a favorable court ruling to stop Alabama Power from selling any of its facilities to TVA and municipalities.
- Alabama Power files a separate lawsuit against PWA contesting grants and loans used by municipalities to build competing and duplicating electric distribution systems.
- The Federal Power Act gives the Federal Power Commission authority to regulate interstate electricity commerce.
- Yates becomes president of Gulf Power in addition to his other roles at C&S.
1936
1936
- The U.S. Supreme Court rules against plaintiffs in the Ashwander case; Alabama Power turns over the Wheeler Dam site to TVA and begins settling property sales to several municipalities in north Alabama.
- Willkie leads 19 utilities in filing a new lawsuit, known as the "TEPCO case" to contest the constitutionality of TVA and, in an initial victory, secures an injunction to stop TVA expansion during the course of the trial.
- The Rural Electrification Act formalizes REA and provides funding for its programs; C&S initially cooperates closely with new rural cooperatives before REA becomes a competitive threat.
- Nevada's Boulder Dam is completed and becomes a modern-day marvel; later named Hoover Dam, it remains one of the nation's largest.
- C&S leads the industry in appliance sales with eight of its subsidiaries ranking in the top twelve utility merchandisers nationwide.
- Georgia Power inaugurates electric bus service to replace trolleys.
- A turbulent tornado devastates downtown Gainesville on April 6, killing 200 and injuring 1,200. The storm destroy Georgia Power district offices and nearby electric facilities.
- December closes with the most intense ice storm in the first half of the twentieth century shutting down service in Alabama and Georgia; crews work round the clock to repair thousands of line breaks; service is out for 10 days in Atlanta.
- Ernest L. Godshalk becomes president of South Carolina Power.
1937
1937
- In January, the U.S. Supreme Court rules against Alabama Power in its PWA lawsuit against PWA, and a district court in the TEPCO case overturns an injunction against TVA expansion.
- C&S shows signs of recovery with net income increasing to $15.1 million.
- At an average price of 3.28 cents per kilowatt-hour, C&S rates are one-third below the national average; the Southern Group utilities have some of the nation's lowest rates and the highest average residential power usage.
- The Bonneville Project Act creates the Bonneville Power Administration to market electricity generated at federal hydro projects in the Northwest; it becomes a model for creating similar power administrations in other regions of the country.
1938
1938
- The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of PUHCA on March 28; Commonwealth & Southern promptly registers with the SEC.
- In the TEPCO case, a federal district court rules the TVA Act valid; utilities appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
- C&S income decreases nearly 22 percent to $11.9 million as a result of another economic recession and increasing competition from REA; there are now 75 rural cooperatives within C&S's service territory.
1939
1939

TVA Sale
- The U.S. Supreme Court rules against utilities in the TEPCO case on January 30. Willkie agrees to sell the entire Tennessee Electric Power Company to TVA for $78.6 million; the sale closes on August 15 and TEPCO is dissolved.
- C&S also agrees to sell TVA additional properties in Alabama and Mississippi for $13 million. Mississippi Power settles with TVA in December, turning over facilities in 11 additional counties. Combined with the first sale, TVA takes over the entire northern half of Mississippi Power's service territory.
- Hostilities in Europe escalate into World War II as Hitler invades Poland and the British and French declare war on Germany. U.S. defense spending boosts power sales; C&S begins building power plants for the first time since the start of the Depression.
1940
1940
- In July, Alabama Power closes on the forced sale of its Northern Division to TVA; the company loses 11 counties and portions of two others.
- The SEC notifies C&S and its subsidiaries that they are in violation of PUHCA and must move toward a single integrated structure.
- Willkie wins the Republican Party nomination for president, resigns from C&S, but fails to unseat FDR in the election.
- Justin R. Whiting becomes president of Commonwealth & Southern.
- Fueled by national defense spending and the rebounding economy, C&S power sales increase by 13.27 percent.
1941
1941

Service men & women of C&S
- The SEC issues a 317-page report on March 19 that gives C&S three options for restructuring; another SEC order on April 8 requires the holding company to move to a single class of stock. Both actions begin a series of SEC hearings that will extend over the next six years.
- Following the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, more than 1,000 C&S employees join the armed services, and the company accelerates power plant construction.
- First units go on line at Alabama Power's Plant Chickasaw, near Mobile, and Georgia Power's Plant Arkwright, near Macon; another unit is installed at Plant Atkinson.
- For the first time since TVA threatened its territory in 1933, C&S's Southern Group is able to sell new securities at low-interest rates and retire high-interest bonds.
- Southeastern Fuel Company, a C&S subsidiary that owns coal supplies and mining rights in Alabama, is consolidated into Alabama Power.
1942
1942
- Because of materials shortages, the War Production Board halts construction projects of Mississippi Power and Gulf Power.
- Additional units are installed at plants Arkwright and Chickasaw.
- Italian physicist Enrico Fermi directs experiments in Chicago that produce the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
1943
1943
- Mississippi Power and Gulf Power are allowed to resume plant construction; to help fill the interim shortfall in capacity, the Southern Group leases a 30-megawatt floating power plant and places it in operation at Pensacola.
- New units are added at plants Gorgas, Chickasaw, and Arkwright.
- Despite aggressive energy conservation campaigns, power sales increase nearly 15 percent, driven by multiple factory shifts and families doubling up in war-production areas.
1944
1944
- C&S develops a formalized pension plan that goes into effect July 1 at all subsidiaries.
- At the height of the war, more than 4,000 C&S employees serve in the armed forces.
- Following the unexpected death of Barney Eaton, Lonnie P. Sweatt becomes president of Mississippi Power.
- The Flood Control Act gives the Secretary of the Interior jurisdiction over electric power sales from Corps of Engineers projects.
- REA is reauthorized and extended indefinitely.
1945
1945

Crist Control Room
- Southern Company is incorporated November 9 in anticipation that the SEC may allow the Southern Group to become a separate holding company, initially incorporated in Delaware under the name of "Southeastern Power Holding Corp." An amended certificate filed the following January 21 changes the name to "The Southern Company."
- Japan's surrender brings World War II to an end; a total of 72 C&S employees have died in action. By the close of the year, 1,223 employees serving in the military are back on the job; and 2,500 are still in uniform or employed elsewhere.
- First units are completed at Plant Eaton, near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the Pensacola plant (later named Plant Crist); a unit is added at Plant Atkinson.
- The Donner Estate purchases Savannah Electric and Power; private owners will retain control of the utility for more than four decades.
- The National Association of Electric Companies is formed to represent the industry's interests in Washington, D.C.; NAEC will merge with EEI in 1978.
1946
1946

Air conditioning at the movies
- Commonwealth & Southern files a new reorganization plan for creating Southern Company and divesting its northern subsidiaries.
- With net income at $31.8 million, more than double the previous year's, C&S begins making payments on preferred dividends that are in arrears.
- A drop in industrial load and military spending is more than offset by a 13 percent increase in residential power use and a 16 percent increase in commercial sales; demand is stimulated by a post-war economic boom. Utilities can begin promoting appliance sales again; and consumers want refrigerators, air conditioning, fluorescent lighting, and new electrical appliances of all types.
- Southern Company's first "organizing" board meeting is held March 29.
- On October 9, Southern Company's first "operating" directors are selected. There are four representatives from the Southern Group – Eugene A. Yates, Tom Martin, Preston Arkwright, and E. L. Godshalk; three from the Northern Group – Justin Whiting, G. H. Bourne, and Jacob Hekma; and three outside directors – Percy H. Clark, Beauchamp Smith, and Pearson Winslow. Yates is named chairman and Bourne president of the proposed company.
- In December, Georgia Power's legendary president and Southern Company board member Preston Arkwright dies and is succeeded by W. E. Mitchell.
- The Atomic Energy Act restricts ownership and use of fissionable materials to the federal government and creates the Atomic Energy Commission to oversee the government's nuclear operations.
1947
1947
- On August 1, the Securities and Exchange Commission approves the formation of Southern Company as the parent of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power. The SEC mandates the sale of South Carolina Power.
- Southern Company's board eliminates the position of chairman on August 21 and elects Eugene Yates president; G.H. Bourne and James F. Crist are named vice presidents; R.A. Stephens is named secretary and treasurer.
- On September 1, Southern Company officially becomes the parent of the four operating companies and little-known subsidiary Savannah River Electric Company.
- The first 10 million shares of Southern Company common stock is issued and held by Commonwealth & Southern, which technically owns Southern until C&S can be dissolved.
- Southern Company leases office space in the William Oliver Building in Atlanta.
- In compliance with SEC requirements that Southern divest its non-electric business lines, Alabama Power sells its gas properties in Phenix City and bus transportation service in Tuscaloosa.
- As an indication of the growing boom, C&S power sales increase 16 percent; 126,487 new customers are added to the lines; and 26 new generating units are under construction or being designed. Mississippi Power adds another unit at Plant Eaton.
- A major hurricane hits the Mississippi Coast on September 19 and new two-way radios prove to be invaluable during service restoration.
- Georgia Power president W. E. Mitchell resigns in February and is replaced by Preston Arkwright Jr., who dies unexpectedly in November and is replaced by C. B. McManus. Georgia Power chairman Dan MacDougald joins Southern's board.
1948
1948
- Southern Company completes its first full year of operation and issues its first dividend of 15 cents a share on March 29, payable to C&S, which still holds its stock.
- In response to an SEC ruling that Southern requires more equity capital, C&S provides $20.2 million in additional funding, $10.2 million of which comes from the sale of South Carolina Power on May 18 to South Carolina Electric & Gas.
- Southern Company and its subsidiaries serve 809,342 customers within a 94,000-square-mile territory. The companies own and operate 1,500 megawatts of generating capacity, 46 percent of which is hydro and the balance steam generation; some 2,200 megawatts of additional generation is under construction, most of it steam.
- Southern holds its first annual meeting of stockholders in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 26.
- First unit of Georgia Power's Plant Mitchell near Albany goes commercial; new units are added at plants Atkinson and Arkwright.
- Gulf Power and Georgia Power sell gas properties in Pensacola, Columbus, and Americus.
- Crist becomes president of Gulf Power.
- Golf legend Robert T. (Bobby) Jones joins Southern's board as an outside director.
1949
1949

Correspondence & Inquiries Unit handles all requests by mail & telephone as Southern Company stock is listed over the counter for the first time
- Southern Company common stock trades over the counter for the first time on July 19; the stock is listed for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on September 30.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 20 cents.
- Southern Company appoints its first transfer agents – Guaranty Trust of New York and Trust Company of Georgia in Atlanta. The board also selects the company's first registrars – Bankers Trust of New York and Citizens and Southern in Atlanta.
- Commonwealth & Southern is dissolved September 30; on October 1, its common stock is dispensed to shareholders: 4,035,491 shares to Consumers Power, 792,686 to Central Illinois Light, 2,020,400 to Ohio Edison, and 11,785,665 to Southern Company.
- In a realignment of Southern's board, three directors previously associated with C&S are replaced by operating company CEOs Jim Crist, C.B. McManus, and Lonnie Sweatt. Gordon D. Palmer joins the board as an outside director. Carl James is named secretary and assistant treasurer; Leonard Jaeger is named treasurer and assistant secretary.
- Southern Services, Inc., is formed to provide engineering, planning, and power coordination services for Southern and its subsidiaries; H.J. Scholz becomes its first president.
- Southern Company completes its first public offering of common stock – 1.5 million new shares sold by Lehman Brothers.
- First two units of the new Plant Gadsden in Alabama are completed; units are added at existing plants Mitchell, Crist, and Eaton and at Mitchell Dam.
- Georgia Power sells its bus transportation properties in Macon and Augusta.
- James M. Barry becomes president of Alabama Power; Martin continues as chairman.
- Despite protests from private utilities, TVA is authorized for the first time to build steam plants specifically for commercial power sales.
- Sperry Corporation introduces Univac I, the first commercial electronic computer.
1950
1950

Plant Yates
- Southern Decadal Statistics: Assets–$148 million; revenue–$133 million; net income–$16.1 million or $1.05 per share; dividends–$0.80 per share; stock price–$11-3/8; system capacity–1,904 megawatts; power sales–10.9 billion kilowatt-hours; customers–938,000; stockholders–98,800; employees–9,852; three-year construction budget–$243 million; price of electricity–1.3 cents/kilowatt-hour total sales, 2.27 cents for residential sales.
- Throughout the new decade, earnings, power sales, and new plant construction will continue to increase rapidly, and Southern Company will sell new common stock shares in all but one of the years.
- On January 23,Yates is named chairman and McManus president of Southern Company; McManus also continues to serve as Georgia Power president.
- Following a favorable ruling on Southern's tax status by the Georgia Supreme Court, the board decides to domesticate the company in Georgia but continues to maintain an office in New York to handle financings and relations with the financial community.
- First two units of Plant Yates, near Newman, Georgia, come on line; they are the system's first 100-megawatt units.
- Southern Company buys Birmingham Electric Company from Electric Bond & Share and begins to transfer the assets and customers to Alabama Power.
- Georgia Power sells its transit system in Atlanta.
- The Southeastern Power Administration is created to market government-generated power in the Southeast; Southern's operating companies submit proposals to purchase and distribute power from federal hydro dams to cooperatives and public bodies at cost.
- At one of the new federal hydro projects – Clark Hill Dam, near Augusta, Georgia – the government condemns and takes 40,000 acres owned by Savannah River Electric; the subsidiary is folded at a loss to Southern Company.
- Upon the death of outside director Pearson Winslow, Earl M. McGowin is elected to Southern's board.
1951
1951

Southern Company's first national advertising campaign
- Southern Company launches its first national advertising campaign, designed to attract new industry to the Southeast; the company also stages information meetings in nine of the nation's financial centers. By year-end, the company has 115,417 stockholders of record.
- In January, McManus begins a six-month leave of absence to head the Defense Electric Power Administration, an appointment made by the Secretary of the Interior to help coordinate energy needs of the defense industry during the Korean War. Harllee Branch Jr. becomes president of Georgia Power.
- First units begin operating at Plant McManus, near Brunswick, Georgia, and Plant Sweatt, near Meridian, Mississippi; Alabama Power installs its first 100-megawatt unit at Plant Gorgas; units are added at Plant Chickasaw and Bartlett's Ferry Dam.
- Georgia Power negotiates for power purchase and distribution rights at Clark Hill Dam, but co-ops seeking direct access to the power press the government for duplicate transmission lines into the area, spurring a tug-of-war that makes national headlines.
1952
1952

New unit is added to Plant Sweatt
- All remaining assets of the dissolved Commonwealth & Southern are transferred to Southern Company following a series of legal actions that delayed transfer of the final 234,335 shares of common stock.
- The merger of Birmingham Electric into Alabama Power becomes effective.
- Additional units come on line at Martin Dam and plants Gorgas, Yates, Crist, and McManus. Annual construction expenses approach $100 million for the first time.
- Southern Company joins a utility coalition studying the generation of electricity from atomic energy.
- Barry is named chairman of the executive committee, a new Southern Company position based in Birmingham; Lewis M. Smith becomes president of Alabama Power.
1953
1953
- A new electric "heat pump," developed by Alabama Power, is marketed by the operating companies to provide summer cooling and winter heating, making it possible for new homeowners to go "total electric."
- First units come on line at Gulf Power's River Junction Steam Plant (later named Plant Scholz) and Georgia Power's Sinclair Dam; a unit is added at Plant Sweatt.
- On November 12, Alabama Power files an application with the Federal Power Commission for a preliminary permit to build a series of new dams on the Coosa River.
- The Atomic Energy Commission approves Southern Company's participation in a nuclear research program headed by Dow Chemical Company and Detroit Edison Company; 26 utilities and industrial companies join in the project.
- Branch is named a director following Dan MacDougald's death in April.
1954
1954

Dixon-Yates Controversy

"Early Bird" Computer System
- Southern Company joins Middle South Utilities in forming the Mississippi Valley Generating Company, which plans to build a plant to provide power to the Atomic Energy Commission; Yates and Middle South's Edgar Dixon sign the contract on November 11. Because the power would be fed into TVA's system, opposition to the contract flares into a national controversy known as "Dixon-Yates."
- First two units of Georgia Power's Plant Hammond, near Rome, come on line as do the first two units of Alabama Power's Plant Barry, near Mobile.
- An analog computer system called the "Early Bird" is invented by Southern Services engineer Donald Early. Installed to coordinate and dispatch power from all of Southern's plants, it is hailed as the world's most advanced system of its type.
- The Atomic Energy Act opens the door to private development of commercial nuclear power under license and control of the Atomic Energy Commission.
- The industry's nuclear research is reorganized under the name "Atomic Power Development Associates," with 33 member companies now participating.
- The industry's nuclear research is reorganized under the name "Atomic Power Development Associates," with 33 member companies now participating.
- Southern Company's board is expanded to include four new outside directors – Leo W. Seal, M.G. Nelson, Peyton T. Anderson, and James V. Carmichael.
1955
1955
- President Dwight Eisenhower pulls the plug on the "Dixon-Yates" contract. When political opponents block the government from refunding expenses contractually due, Southern Company and Middle South file a lawsuit to recover those costs.
- Southern Company raises its dividends on common stock to 22.5 cents per share.
- In Georgia, units are added at Plant Hammond and Goat Rock Dam.
- Southern joins the Power Reactor Development Company, which is planning to build a nuclear plant in Michigan (later named Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant).
- Branch becomes the 1955-1956 chairman of EEI.
- Lansing T. Smith becomes president of Gulf Power.
1956
1956

"Live Better...Electrically" slogan
- A new subsidiary, Southern Electric Generating Company, is organized in May with plans to build four 250-megawatt units to be co-owned by Alabama Power and Georgia Power. Crist is named president of SEGCO, replacing Scholz, who headed the planning phase of SEGCO in his role as service company president.
- Georgia Power buys the Georgia Power & Light Company from Florida Power Corp. on March 1; the acquisition adds 20 south Georgia counties to the company's territory.
- Branch becomes president of Southern Company; McManus becomes vice chairman.
- In a resolution of the Clark Hill conflict, Georgia Power retains wheeling rights to the dam's electricity and successfully works out contracts with public power groups given preference to the energy.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 25 cents per share.
- Alfred M. Shook III joins the board as an outside director replacing Gordon D. Palmer, deceased.
- "Live Better…Electrically" is the theme adopted by the industry's promotional efforts.
1957
1957
- Southern Company celebrates its 10th full year of operation; over the past decade, the company has added more than 2,000 megawatts of capacity and the number of customers has more than doubled to 1,453,000. Average residential power use is up from 1,886 kilowatt-hours to 3,474; average price per kwh is down from 2.31 cents to 2.07 cents.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 27.5 cents per share.
- First unit of Mississippi Power Gulf Coast plant (later named Plant Watson) goes into service; units are added at Plant Yates and Goat Rock Dam.
- In September, Alabama Power receives a federal license to begin four new dams and enlarge Lay Dam on the Coosa River. Also granted is a license to build a new dam and install powerhouses at existing federal dams on the Warrior River.
- The nation's first commercial nuclear reactor begins operating in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Southern Company's commits $2.4 million in funding and $15 million in loan guarantees to continuing nuclear research.
- The Price-Anderson Act reduces liability in the event of a nuclear plant catastrophe.
- Southern closes its Wilmington office and moves the corporate secretary function to its new Atlanta offices at 1330 West Peachtree Street; the company will maintain a small New York office but move most of its finance staff to Atlanta.
- Yates has a heart attack and dies on October 5; McManus becomes chairman; Branch continues as president. Walter Bouldin becomes president of Alabama Power; John J. McDonough is named president of Georgia Power; E.C. Gaston becomes president of Southern Services.
- Outside director Percy H. Clark retires.
1958
1958
- Work starts on the Coosa-Warrior developments in Alabama and continues through the next decade, making it one of the largest hydro developments undertaken by private enterprise.
- Units are added at plants Yates and Gorgas.
- Branch and Scholz attend the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva; in addition to supporting nuclear research, Southern Company begins nuclear reactor training programs for its engineers.
- The Advertising Federation of America honors Southern Company's national advertising program for promoting the South's progress and economic development;186 new industries are added in the four-state region during 1958.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 30 cents per share.
- A.J. (Jack) Watson Jr. becomes president and CEO of Mississippi Power; Sweatt continues as chairman.
- Company CEOs testify in Washington against a proposed bill to allow TVA to issue bonds with no restriction on its expansion into territories served by investor-owned utilities.
- EEI creates the "Golf Medallion Home" program to promote all-electric homes.
1959
1959
- Alabama Power receives the industry's Edison Award for undertaking the Coosa-Warrior hydro developments. Georgia Power completes Oliver Dam, near Columbus on the Chattahoochee River; units are added at plants Barry, McManus, and Crist.
- A nuclear engineering department is created within Southern Services.
- The operating companies promote a new home rewiring program to accommodate new appliances, conveniences, and total-electric living.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 32.5 cents a share.
- President Eisenhower signs the TVA Revenue Act into law, setting TVA free of Congressional appropriations and control and allowing it to raise future construction funds through selling bonds. The act also places a "fence" around TVA, limiting its expansion to a five-mile perimeter around its existing territory.
- The U.S. Court of Claims rules that Southern Company and Middle South Utilities are entitled to $1.9 million in damages from the canceled "Dixon-Yates" contract, but the Department of Justice appeals to the Supreme Court.
1960
1960

Coal mine for the SEGCO plant
- Southern Decadal Statistics: Assets–$1.4 billion; revenue–$318 million; net income–$46.1 million or $2.06 per share; dividends–$1.40 per share; stock price–$48; system capacity–4,700 megawatts; peak demand–4,746,000 kilowatts; power sales–22.8 billion kilowatt-hours; customers–1.6 million; stockholders–122,100; employees–nearly 13,000; three-year construction budget–$454 million; price of electricity–1.38 cents/kilowatt-hour total sales, 1.96 cents for residential sales.
- First two units of the SEGCO plant (later named Plant Gaston) begin commercial operation; a second unit is added at Plant Watson.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 35 cents a share.
- McManus retires as chairman of Southern Company; the position is unfilled as Branch becomes president with CEO responsibilities.
1961
1961
- First units in the Coosa-Warrior developments are placed in service at the Lewis Smith and Weiss dams; units are added at plants Crist and Gaston.
- The U.S. Supreme Court reverses a judgment by the Court of Claims and dismisses all damage claims related to the "Dixon-Yates" contract; Southern Company's portion of the write-off is half a million dollars.
- The Alabama state legislature declares August 13 "Thomas W. Martin Day" in honor of Alabama Power's long-term leader.
- The Enrico Fermi plant in Michigan is completed and undergoes start-up tests.
- As co-ops move into urban markets, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power try to block two REA loans – $20.4 million in Alabama and $16 million in Mississippi – from being used to build generating and transmission facilities in areas the companies already serve. The projects are contested in hearings and state courts over the next seven years.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 37.5 cents a share.
- Alvin W. Vogtle Jr. is named president of SEGCO; Crist is named executive vice president of Southern Company. Lansing Smith retires and R. L. Pulley becomes president of Gulf Power.
1962
1962
- Alabama Power installs the first unit at the Bankhead Dam on the Warrior River, near Tuscaloosa; Georgia Power installs the first units at the North Highlands Hydro Plant on the Chattahoochee River, near Columbus; units are added at plants Gaston and Watson and at the Lewis Smith and Weiss dams.
- Southern Services is reorganized on December 21 as a subsidiary of Southern Company; it previously had been owned by the operating companies.
- Quarterly dividend is at 40 cents per share.
- Additions to Southern Company board are Vogtle, Watson, and outside director W. C. Vereen Jr. Vogtle also becomes executive vice president of Alabama Power.
1963
1963
- First unit is installed at Plant McDonough, near Atlanta; other units are added at the North Highlands and Bankhead dams.
- A U.S. Department of Commerce study reports that the southern region leads the country in more than 75 percent of all economic indices; over the past 10 years, 1,555 new industries, creating 124,000 new jobs, have located in Southern's service territory.
- Southern Company officers and Atlanta-based employees of the service company move to Lenox Towers, across the street from Lenox Mall, one of the nation's largest and first all-electric shopping malls.
- Southern's quarterly dividend increases to 42.5 cents.
- Bouldin becomes the 1963-1964 chairman of EEI.
- Edwin I. Hatch is elected president of Georgia Power; McDonough continues as chairman and CEO.
- J. D. Lewis joins the board as an outside director.
- The first Clean Air Act focuses on research, creation of state control agencies, and interstate pollution issues; specific pollution-control policies will be enacted seven years later.
1964
1964
- Southern Company's dividend is raised to 45 cents, the 10th increase in 10 years.
- Alabama Power completes Logan Martin Dam on the Coosa River, near Gadsden; new units are installed at plants McDonough and Mitchell.
- The four operating companies revise rate schedules to pass on a reduction in the federal income tax from 52 percent to 48 percent.
- Legendary Alabama Power chairman Thomas W. Martin dies on December 8 at age 83; he had been associated with the company since 1911. Bouldin succeeds Martin on Southern Company's board. Clyde A. Lilly Jr. becomes president of Gulf Power; Pulley continues as chairman.
- Outside director William H. Brantley Jr. dies and is succeeded by Joseph L. Lanier.
1965
1965

Greene County Plant
- First unit of the Greene County Steam Plant, near Demopolis, Alabama, comes on line; the new plant is owned jointly by Alabama Power (60%) and Mississippi Power (40%).
- Georgia Power completes the first unit of Plant Branch, near Milledgeville, and Gulf Power completes the first unit of Plant Lansing Smith, near Panama City.
- Southern Services begins to centralize and coordinate system fuel procurement.
- Mississippi's Chancery Court of Hinds County upholds a PSC ruling allowing cooperatives to build facilities duplicating those of Mississippi Power; while the company appeals to the state supreme court, co-ops in the state form a larger coalition and obtain an additional $22 million in loans from REA.
- In Alabama, the courts release the Alabama Electric Cooperative to begin work on a generating plant in southwest Alabama. Another legal fight breaks out when AEC-member cities Troy and Luverne become wholesale customers of Alabama Power, a move supported by the courts and the state PSC.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 48 cents.
- Joseph M. Farley is elected executive vice president of Alabama Power, replacing Vogtle, who moves to Southern Company as vice president.
- A major blackout in the Northeast raises concerns about reliability.
1966
1966

H. Neely Henry Dam Runner Hub Assembly
- Southern Company splits its common stock 2-for-1; in October, dividends are set at 25.5 cent a share, an increase when adjusted for the split.
- Alabama Power completes the H. Neely Henry Dam on the Coosa River, near Ragland; unit additions are made at plants Branch, Lansing Smith, and Greene County.
- A 19-week strike by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Works against Alabama Power begins August 16; non-union employees move to generation and delivery jobs critical to keeping the lights on.
- A United Mine Workers of America strike closes the coal mining operations of Alabama Power and SEGCO for seven weeks.
- Southern Services begins developing procedures for standardizing customer accounting across the system, the first step toward centralizing computer operations.
- Hatch becomes CEO as well as president of Georgia Power upon McDonough's retirement. Vogtle becomes Southern's senior executive vice president, replacing Crist, who retires. Lilly and Jaeger are elected to Southern's board, along with outside director Robert H. Radcliff Jr. Pulley retires as chairman of Gulf Power. William R. Brownlee becomes president of Southern Services; Gaston continues as chairman and CEO.
- An accident shuts down Unit 1 of the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Plant; although the unit is repaired and restarted, it will be mothballed in 1972.
1967
1967

Plant Hatch
- Southern Company announces plans to build its first nuclear plant – Plant Hatch, near Baxley, Georgia.
- Alabama Power completes Bouldin Dam on the Coosa River, near Wetumpka, and the first phase of a redevelopment of Lay Dam; units are added at plants Branch and Lansing Smith.
- Branch initiates "Project Look Ahead," a study that brings about dozens of coordinated policies, practices, and technological developments across Southern.
- Southern Services creates an aviation department and purchases the system's first aircraft.
- The IBEW strike against Alabama Power ends on January 7.
- Dividend increases to 27 cents.
- Gaston retires and Brownlee assumes CEO duties at the service company and joins Southern's board. Jaeger becomes vice chairman of Southern Services.
1968
1968
- Alabama Power and Georgia Power file for rate increases – a sign of things to come as the declining-cost utility business is hit with inflation, higher labor and fuel costs, and new expenses for environmental controls.
- Georgia Power is granted a rate increase of $2.3 million; Alabama Power begins collecting $6 million in higher rates under bond, pending an appeal of an adverse commission order.
- For the first time, Southern's three-year construction budget exceeds $1 billion.
- First unit of Alabama Power's generating facility at Holt Lock and Dam on the Warrior River comes on line; additional units installed at plants Branch and Watson and at Lay Dam.
- The REA-loan legal battles end when the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review unfavorable state court decisions from Mississippi and Alabama; Mississippi Power loses four major wholesale customers and Alabama Power loses three.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 28.5 cents a share.
- In response to the threat of "reliability legislation," Southern Company helps create the National Electric Reliability Council to self-regulate the industry's transmission exchanges and promote a reliable power supply nationwide.
- William J. Cabaniss joins the board as an outside director.
1969
1969

Devastation from Hurricane Camille
- The century's most intense storm, Hurricane Camille, strikes the Gulf Coast and devastates Mississippi Power's operations; service is restored to those who can accept it 15 days later with the help of crews from sister companies and six other utilities.
- Alabama Power's rate increase of $6.9 million goes into effect.
- Southern's quarterly dividend increases to 30 cents.
- A research department is created at Southern Services to conduct the system's most challenging environmental studies; it is headed by vice president William B. Harrison, former dean of Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
- The National Environmental Policy Act requires environmental impact studies in the permitting process for new power plants.
- Alabama Power announces plans to build the system's second nuclear facility – Plant Farley, near Dothan, Alabama.
- Generating facilities placed in service include the system's largest – a 490-kilowatt unit at Plant Branch and a 350-kilowatt unit at Plant Barry; combustion turbines are added at plants Arkwright and Greene County.
- Vogtle becomes president of Southern Company; Branch remains chairman and CEO. Lilly becomes president of Southern Services; Brownlee continues as chairman. Robert R. Ellis Jr. becomes president of Gulf Power.
1970
1970
- Southern Decadal Statistics: Assets–$3 billion; revenue–$738 million; net income–$100.7 million or $1.94 per share; dividends–$1.215 per share; stock price–$25.75; system capacity–10,882 megawatts; power sales–58.5 billion kilowatt-hours; customers–2 million; stockholders–109,000; employees–16,000; three-year construction budget–$2 billion; price of electricity–1.25 cents/kilowatt-hour total sales, 1.69 cents for residential sales.
- The 1970 Clean Air Act amendments create the Environmental Protection Agency and require utilities to reduce air emissions; the first national environmental awareness event – "Earth Day"– is held April 22.
- Southern Company joins with 18 regional utilities in forming the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council to set standards for a reliable power supply in the Southeast.
- The "Early Bird" is replaced with a new digital computer system for coordinating economic dispatch of electric power across the service area.
- Mississippi Power wins the industry's Edison Award for its response to Hurricane Camille. The company's first rate increase of $1.9 million is approved, helping to offset losses from the natural disaster.
- With annual system expenses climbing 20 percent for the first time, Georgia Power seeks an $11 million increase in its wholesale rates, Alabama Power files for a $19.9 million increase in retail rates, and Mississippi Power files for a $3 million retail increase. Rate hearings will dominate the decade as inflation and expenses continue to increase.
- Units are added at plants Hammond and Crist and combustion turbines added at plants Atkinson, Gaston, and Watson.
- The Atomic Energy Commission's licensing procedures are amended to consider antitrust actions when public power groups are denied participation in the ownership of investor-owned nuclear power plants.
- Vogtle is named CEO as well as president of Southern Company. Farley and Ellis join Southern's board. Brownlee retires and Lilly becomes CEO as well as president of Southern Services. George B. Campbell becomes vice president of finance and accounting upon Jaeger's retirement.
- Outside director William S. Morris III joins the board.
1971
1971

The data center, a new mainframe computer providing data processing for a number of company applications

Plant Bowen
- Southern Company and the Atlanta staff of Southern Services move into a new corporate headquarters in north Atlanta that houses the Data Center, a new mainframe computer providing centralized data processing for customer accounting and many financial, engineering, telecommunications, and other applications across the system.
- Branch retires; Vogtle continues as CEO and president of Southern Company.
- In compliance with President Richard Nixon's wage and price freeze, Southern Company postpones a decision to increase its dividend in October.
- Retail rate increases are awarded to Alabama Power ($16.9 million), Georgia Power ($26 million) and Mississippi Power ($3 million). Gulf Power files for its first increase.
- First unit of Georgia Power's Plant Bowen near Cartersville goes into service; a new unit is added at Plant Barry; they are the system's first 700-megawatt units.
- Southern's research group begins studying solvent refining, a new process for "cleaning" coal of its pollutants before it is burned.
- The system's first 500-kilovolt transmission line is built to connect Plant Bowen to the Atlanta load.
- Bobby Jones dies December 18 and Earl McGowin retires from the board in November; William J. Rushton III and William W. McTyeire Jr. join the board.
1972
1972
- Southern Company has the highest peak-hour demand among the nation's investor-owned utilities.
- For the third consecutive year, expenses rise 20 percent; fuel costs increase 22 percent.
- Units are added at plants Bowen and Gorgas; combustion turbines are added at Plant McManus.
- Alabama Power is granted a $26.9 million retail rate increase; Georgia Power, $17.9 million; and Gulf Power, $3.7 million. Mississippi Power is denied an increase. All four companies receive small increases in wholesale rates.
- Victor J. Daniel Jr. becomes president of Mississippi Power; Watson continues as chairman and CEO.
- Outside directors J.D. Lewis and William J. Cabaniss retire and director James V. Carmichael dies. Frank P. Samford Jr., H. G. Patillo, and A. F. Dantzler join the board.
- The Federal Water Pollution Control Act regulates utility discharges into water.
1973
1973

Scholz fluegas units
- Unable to proceed with a bond sale, Georgia Power is granted an interim $11 million emergency increase and a permanent increase of $67.9 million in December.
- Units are added at plants Crist and Watson.
- Southern Company builds a solvent refining pilot plant at Wilsonville, Alabama. Southern also begins testing new methods of removing pollutants from flue gas at Plant Scholz. Plant Crist becomes the site of the nation’s largest program for evaluating flue-gas analyzers, instruments for monitoring power plant emissions.
- The Electric Power Research Institute is created to coordinate large-scale industry research projects and share funding among electric utilities, manufacturers, government, and third-party participants. Pledging $8.7 million for the first two years of operations, Southern becomes one of the largest contributors to EPRI.
- Quarterly dividend is raised to 33.5 cents a share.
- Watson retires and Daniel becomes president and CEO of Mississippi Power. Outside director William A. Parker Jr. joins Southern’s board.
- Vogtle becomes the 1973-1974 chairman of EEI.
- An Arab oil embargo creates gas rationing, 55-mph speed limits, and an “energy czar” in the White House. Utilities order 41 nuclear reactors, a single-year record.
- Oil dependent and unable to get a rate increase, Savannah Electric and Power is near bankruptcy; John McIntosh is named chairman and CEO and works for several years to restore financial health to the company while fending off threats of takeover.
1974
1974
- The Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act gives the federal government power to prohibit utilities from burning natural gas or oil.
- Coal-burning utilities also feel the sting; Southern's fuel expenses jump by more than 83 percent.
- Earnings fall to $123 million, close to the dividend payout level.
- Southern Company announces $2.1 billion in construction cutbacks for the next three years; energy sales increase only 1 percent, far below historical averages of 10 percent.
- Units are added at plants Gaston, Bowen, and Yates.
- Gulf Power imports low-sulfur coal from South Africa and Australia in an attempt to meet stringent state air-quality standards.
- Three operating companies receive emergency interim retail rate relief – Alabama Power ($7.5 million), Georgia Power ($35 million), and Gulf Power ($17.2 million). Mississippi Power's $3.4 million rate increase is denied but is billed under bond while appeals work through the courts. All four companies are back in for wholesale rate increases.
- The Nuclear Reorganization Act establishes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as an independent agency to regulate civilian use of nuclear materials.
1975
1975

Plant Daniel
- Earnings rebound to $238 million; Southern’s quarterly dividend is raised to 35 cents.
- Georgia Power agrees to sell 30 percent of Plant Hatch to Oglethorpe Electric Membership Corporation, a group of 39 rural cooperatives.
- The system’s first nuclear unit at Plant Hatch begins commercial operation.
- Alabama Power postpones its planned Barton Nuclear Plant, which later will be cancelled. Construction moves forward on a coal plant in Jackson County, Mississippi (later named Plant Daniel) and a new nuclear plant near Waynesboro, Georgia (later named Plant Vogtle).
- Rate cases are stacking up from regulatory lag. Mississippi Power seeks a new $14 million increase while still fighting legal battles over a “zero order” in 1974. Gulf Power files for a supplemental increase before being awarded $20 million of its 1974 request. Georgia Power receives two temporary increases before being awarded $116 million in permanent relief, less than 40 percent of its previous year’s request. Alabama Power receives $54 million but files for a new increase before the end of the year.
- The last of three scrubbers being tested at Plant Scholz become operational.
- A Plant Crist fire takes a unit out of service four months.
- A break at Bouldin Dam causes extensive damage; Alabama Power and its insurers file suit against contractors in attempts to recover the cost of repairs estimated at $65 million.
- Hurricane Eloise hits Fort Walton Beach; power to 55,000 affected Gulf Power customers is restored in six days.
- Southern Company begins a Dividend Reinvestment and Stock Purchase Plan for stockholders; it will become an important future source of equity capital.
- Thirteen nuclear projects nationwide are canceled following a fire at TVA’s Brown Ferry plant.
- Robert W. Scherer becomes president and chief operating officer of Georgia Power; Hatch continues at chairman and CEO. M.G. Nelson retires from Southern’s board and is replaced by outside director Crawford Rainwater.
1976
1976
- A new corporate identity is adapted by all of Southern Company’s affiliates; for the first time, the parent company and its subsidiaries have a common triangular logo.
- Southern Services’ name is changed to Southern Company Services (SCS).
- First unit of Georgia Power’s Plant Wansley, near Carrollton, begins commercial operation.
- Gulf Power cancels plans to build a plant at Caryville and agrees to buy half interest in Mississippi Power’s Plant Daniel, which, when completed, will burn low-sulfur coal from Utah and Colorado – the system’s first coal purchases from western states.
- Georgia Power agrees to sell portions of its nuclear units to three public-power groups – 30 percent to the Oglethorpe Electric Membership Corporation, 17.7 percent to the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and 1.6 percent to the City of Dalton.
- Quarterly dividends are 36.5 cents.
- After the Alabama PSC rejects a $106.8 million rate filing in its entirety, Alabama Power receives half of the request through two circuit court orders while appeals are pending, then files a new $173.9 million request in October. Mississippi Power receives a $6 million increase, less than half of its prior year’s request. Wholesale rate increases contribute $14 million to net income, although four settlements are still pending.
- The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act creates standards for disposing of hazardous and nonhazardous wastes.
- New load-management programs go into effect, including Southern’s first time-of-day rates and experiments with radio-control systems used to turn off air conditioning units and water heaters during peak-demand periods.
- Gulf Power’s “Good Cents” is one of the industry’s first programs to promote building standards to achieve home energy efficiency goals; the program eventually will be marketed to utilities nationwide.
1977
1977

Equipment for Plant Farley
- A tragic system air crash kills Clyde A. Lilly, SCS president, William B. Lalor, SCS executive vice president, and pilots Thomas R. Taylor III and Ronald Golden.
- First unit of Plant Farley, the system's first rated at 860-megawatts, is placed in commercial service. First unit of Plant Daniel comes on line.
- A successful test burn of solvent refined coal is conducted at Plant Mitchell.
- New Clean Air Act amendments disallow tall stacks as a compliance strategy and force reductions in emissions.
- Completion of a four-year test program at Plant Scholz results in major improvements in scrubber technology.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 38.5 cents.
- Georgia Power constructs test houses to study solar-assisted water and space heating and other new energy-efficient features.
- Retail rate case settlements for Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Gulf Power total $198.8 million, with another $38.1 million in requests still pending or being appealed.
- System companies receive $59.2 million in wholesale rate increases; another $78.3 million in requests are still pending or being appealed.
- Alabama Governor George Wallace initiates proceedings against Alabama Power, calling its rates excessive; evidence later presented in hearings prove otherwise.
- President Carter creates the Department of Energy, and James Schlesinger becomes DOE's first secretary.
- The Federal Energy Regulator Commission (FERC) is created to replace the Federal Power Commission as the regulator of wholesale energy and hydro licensing.
- A blackout in New York City heightens anxiety about the energy crisis and power reliability.
- William B. Reed becomes president of SCS. John W. Langdale joins Southern's board as an outside director.
1978
1978

Montevallo district office
solar and energy conservation demonstration building
- First unit completed at Plant Miller, 20 miles northwest of Birmingham; a unit is added at Plant Wansley.
- An outside audit confirms Alabama Power and SCS are well managed and low cost.
- After a negative ruling by the state supreme court, Alabama Power's financial condition deteriorates; while pleading for emergency relief, the company halts all construction in December. Gulf Power is granted $10.8 million in rate increases.
- FERC awards the operating companies $7.9 million in wholesale rates, with $65 million in requests still pending.
- Alabama Power is the first utility to participate in DOE's new commercial solar program; the company's new Montevallo district office will become a solar and energy conservation demonstration building.
- President Carter signs several energy bills: The National Energy Conservation Act requires utilities to provide customers free conservation service; the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act requires utilities to buy electricity from qualified cogenerators and independent power producers; the Natural Gas Policy Act partially deregulates gas prices at the wellhead; and the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act limits use of natural gas in electric generation (repealed in 1987).
- Hatch retires and Scherer becomes CEO and president of Georgia Power. Edward L. Addison is named president of Gulf Power. Herbert Stockham becomes a director of Southern Company.
1979
1979

Southern Company's Nuclear Task Force
- The nation’s most significant nuclear accident occurs on March 28 at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, resulting in a major overhaul of nuclear regulations and safety standards and sending the cost of nuclear construction skyward.
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders extensive testing of piping supports in all nuclear plants to ensure they can withstand severe earthquakes; plants Hatch and Farley are out of service all summer and into the fall.
- In response to TMI, Southern Company establishes a task force on April 3 to conduct a 10-month study of safety designs and operating procedures at its nuclear plants; the review produces 20 recommendations to further enhance safety.
- Southern joins other utilities in creating a nuclear “watchdog,” (Institute for Nuclear Power Operations), a nuclear member insurance group (Nuclear Mutual Limited), and an information group that later becomes known as the Nuclear Energy Institute.
- Additional hikes in oil prices by OPEC countries create another energy crisis, double-digit inflation, and high fuel prices.
- Southern maintains its dividend, although earnings fall slightly below the dividend level.
- Alabama Power receives $208 million in rate relief but has to file a new request by the end of the year. Georgia Power receives $169 million in higher rates.
- First unit of Wallace Dam, the system’s first pumped storage facility, is completed near Eatonton, Georgia.
- Hurricane Frederic causes $30 million in damage to electric facilities and leaves 20 percent of the system in the dark; Gulf Power and Alabama Power are hardest hit.
- Computerized energy efficiency audits are conducted for residential customers; new energy management programs are developed for industrial and commercial customers.
- SCS designs the world’s first large-scale plant capable of producing liquid solvent-refined coal; it is expected to cost up to $725 million and be built by DOE in Newman, Kentucky; research continues at Southern’s SRC plant near Wilsonville.
1980
1980
- Southern Decadal Statistics: Assets–$9.9 billion; revenue–$3.9 billion; net income–$344 million or $2.23 per share; dividends–$1.56 per share; stock price–$12.23; system capacity–23,223 megawatts; peak demand–19,553,100 kilowatts; power sales–92 billion kilowatt-hours; customers–2.6 million; stockholders–345,000; employees–27,940; three-year construction budget–$4.7 billion; price of electricity–4.07 cents/kilowatt-hour total sales, 4.84 cents for residential sales.
- Southern ranks No.1 in system capacity among all U.S. utilities. By burning 36 million tons of coal during the year, Southern also is the nation's third largest user of coal.
- Off-system power sales to neighboring utilities total 4 billion kilowatt-hours; long-term contracts will become increasingly important as Southern struggles to complete its construction program while demand growth declines. Although no new plants have been initiated since 1974, some 7,000 megawatts of generating capacity is still in the pipeline.
- Unit 2 of Plant Farley and Bouldin Dam reconstruction are finished; units are added at Wallace Dam. Gulf Power purchases 25 percent interest in a unit under construction at Georgia Power's Plant Scherer, near Macon.
- Mississippi Power receives $16.8 million in rate relief; $40 million is awarded to Gulf Power. In a settlement of two previous cases, Alabama Power is awarded $92.5 million in additional increases beginning July 30, reduced to $80 million after seven months.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 40.5 cents.
- Southern Company turns over the management of its solvent-refined coal process to International Coal Refining Company, which plans to make the technology a commercial reality; declining fuel prices will eventually deem the process commercially infeasible.
1981
1981

Winter Storm affects service to 300,000 customers

Plant Farley
- A winter storm affects service to 300,000 customers across four states; hardest hit by the freezing rain and snow, Alabama Power restores service in three days.
- Plant Farley has the nation’s best performing nuclear units; unit 2 completes its initial year with the highest operating availability of any reactor of its type, surpassing the record set by Unit 1 four years earlier.
- Southern Company creates Southern Electric International (SEI) to market engineering, operating, and planning expertise to utilities and industrial concerns. Harold C. McKenzie Jr. is named president of the new subsidiary.
- Congress authorizes $50 million to study “acid rain,” an emerging new environmental concern; Southern Company joins EPRI in researching acid rain in the Southeast.
- IBEW ends a 19-day strike against Georgia Power.
- With expenses still increasing at 20 percent levels, all operating companies return for rate increases. Alabama Power receives a “zero rate order” on a $324.9-million request, but court rulings allow it to begin collecting a portion while the case is under appeal. Mississippi Power is granted $10.9 million, less than one-third of its request, and Gulf receives $5.5 million, less than 20 percent of its request. Georgia Power is awarded $265.2 million in a two-step order.
- FERC grants Southern utilities $53.6 million in wholesale rate increases.
- Daniel retires and Alan Barton is named president of Mississippi Power.
1982
1982

Solar Collectors in Shenandoah, Georgia

Study of "baghouse" technology at Plant Scholz
- First unit of Plant Scherer comes on line; all but 8.4 percent of it has been sold to cooperatives and municipalities.
- Earnings rebound to $472 million, or $2.38 a share, the best they’ve been since 1975. Southern sells a record 18 million new shares in a public offering to raise $239 million for construction. Dividends increase to 42.5 cents.
- A one-month strike against Alabama Power ends October 14 with union members signing a new two-year contract.
- Following a favorable state supreme court ruling, the Alabama PSC makes permanent a $186 million rate increase for Alabama Power, awards it another $120 million in December, and approves a new rate stabilization plan that promises to stabilize Alabama Power’s financial rollercoaster ride.
- FERC approves $35 million in wholesale increases for the operating companies.
- MEAG increases its ownership of Plant Vogtle to 17.7 percent.
- Georgia Power, DOE, and the Shenandoah Development Corporation construct the world’s largest commercial solar energy installation, designed to provide energy for a knitwear factory in Shenandoah, Georgia.
- Southern begins a four-year study of “baghouse” technology to clean exhaust gases at Plant Scholz.
- A new computerized radar network is developed to track storms across the system and aid the companies in preparing for possible outages.
- Alabama Power introduces Project Share to help low-income, elderly, and disabled customers pay energy bills; all the operating companies will adopt similar programs.
- Jim Miller becomes president of Georgia Power; Scherer continues as chairman.
- Arthur Gignilliat Jr. becomes president of Savannah Electric and Power; McIntosh continues as chairman.
  The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires DOE to site, build, and operate a national facility for disposing of nuclear wastes.
1983
1983

Wilsonville Worker

Harris Dam
- Off-system sales increase to 12 billion kilowatt-hours.
- Southern signs 10-year, unit-power agreements to sell major blocks of capacity off system to the Jacksonville Electric Authority, Florida Power & Light, and Texas-based Gulf States Utilities.
- Harris Dam begins commercial operation in east central Alabama as the system's 33rd hydro plant.
- Georgia Power defers work on the Rocky Mountain Hydroelectric Generating Plant in northwest Georgia.
- The system's three-year construction budget is up to $7.2 billion, driven largely by increasing costs at Plant Vogtle.
- Dividends are at 45 cents a share.
- Through the new rate stabilization plan, Alabama Power receives two small adjustments, and three major rating agencies upgrade the creditworthiness of the company's securities.
- Georgia Power reaches a $195.4 million negotiated settlement in its rate proceedings. Gulf Power files an appeal after receiving $3.4 million, less than 10 percent of its request. Mississippi Power receives an $18.6 million increase in a court resolution of a three-year-old request.
- Southern makes progress on a coal liquefaction process at Wilsonville and conducts a test burn of synthetic liquid coal at Plant Sweatt.
- Alvin Vogtle retires and Ed Addison is named president and CEO. Doug McCrary becomes president of Gulf Power. William McTyeire and W. C. Vereen retire from the board; outside directors Charles H. Chapman Jr. and Dr. Gloria M. Shatto replace them.
1984
1984

Construction at Plant Vogtle
- Southern Company stock is at $18.88, the highest it has been in 11 years. Dividends increase to 48 cents a share.
- Estimates for completing Plant Vogtle are up to $7.2 billion, reflecting the high cost of labor, inflation, and numerous post-TMI design changes required by NRC. MEAG buys an additional 5 percent share of the plant, making its ownership 22.7 percent.
- Georgia Power begins an 18-month “Readiness Review” to address licensing issues early and avoid problems some utilities are having in getting an operating license once their nuclear plants are built.
- A unit is added at Plant Scherer.
- Off-system sales reach 18.8 billion kilowatt-hours.
- Gulf Power receives a rate increase of $4.7 million, 25 percent of the amount requested.
- The Alabama Electric Cooperative asks the NRC to impose antitrust sanctions against Alabama Power after the co-op group fails to negotiate a 6 percent purchase of Plant Farley.
- System researchers study fuel cells at the University of Alabama and a hospital in Gainesville, Georgia. Southern joins a group developing a fluidized bed combustion boiler in Paducah, Kentucky, the world’s largest demonstration of this scrubber technology.
- Southern participates in a five-year, $400 million study of acid rain headed by EPRI.
- McIntosh retires and Gignilliat becomes president and CEO of Savannah Electric and Power.
1985
1985

Southern Company takes lead role in Living Lakes, Inc
- The cost of Plant Vogtle is adjusted upward to $8.4 billion.
- The Georgia senate passes a bill requiring the PSC to phase in the impact of Plant Vogtle on customer rates, and the Georgia PSC begins holding hearings on phase-in options. Meanwhile, Georgia Power is forced to refund a portion of a 1983 rate increase.
- Hurricane Elena strikes the Gulf Coast on Labor Day; service is restored in seven days to some 270,000 affected customers of Alabama Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power. In December, Mississippi Power is granted a $6.8 million rate increase to help offset the storm's damages.
- With earnings up to $829.6 million, or $3.20 per share, the dividend rate is increased to 51 cents in the fourth quarter.
- At 27.1 billion kilowatt-hours, off-system sales represent 21 percent of Southern's total power sales.
- The system sets a new winter peak of 19,204,000 kilowatts and a new summer peak of 21,287,800.
- Units are added at Plant Miller and the Mitchell and Bartletts Ferry dams.
- Southern Electric Investments is created to invest in energy technologies; the new subsidiary invests $6.1 million in a factory making photovoltaic cells.
- Southern Company takes a lead role in forming Living Lakes, Inc., a five-year program to help restore acidic lakes and streams in the eastern United States.
- Bill Dahlberg becomes president of SCS and also oversees Southern Electric International upon McKenzie's resignation.
- Frank Samford and Al Dantzler retire from the board and are replaced by William J. Cabaniss Jr. and Earl D. McLean Jr.
1986
1986
- Plant Vogtle cost estimates are up to $8.87 billion; $226 million will be taken as a write-off because it exceeds a cost cap that Georgia Power has pledged to the PSC and because of buyback arrangements with co-owners.
- A stockholders lawsuit charges directors with negligence related to Plant Vogtle and Rocky Mountain construction; the legal dispute will end with a settlement in 1992.
- Gulf States Utilities files a lawsuit against Southern Company seeking release from its unit-power contracts; Southern appeals the dispute to FERC.
- Southern Company increases its dividend to 53.5 cents but it will be the last increase for six years because of write-offs, lawsuits, and Plant Vogtle ratemaking problems.
- The Mississippi PSC approves a new Performance Evaluation Plan that will stabilize ratemaking and financial problems for Mississippi Power; two small retail rate increases go into effect under the plan. Alabama's rate stabilization program is extended for three more years.
- Amendments to the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act present new environmental challenges for Southern Company.
- The nuclear power industry faces another crisis of confidence following the worst accident in nuclear power history at Cernobyl, north of Kiev in the Ukraine.
- Crawford Rainwater and John Langdale retire from the board. Additions include William P. Copenhaver, Virginia A. Dwyer, L. G. Hardman III, and Vincent J. Whibbs.
1987
1987
- Plant Vogtle Unit 1 begins commercial operations on May 31.
- A write-off related to Plant Vogtle’s “cost cap” reduces Southern’s earnings by 79 cents a share. In October, the PSC grants Georgia Power a $464 million rate increase to be phased in but disallows $951 million in the plant costs as imprudent. Georgia Power appeals the decision hoping to avoid another write-off.
- Southern Company reaches an agreement to purchase Savannah Electric and Power Company with an offer of 1.05 shares of Southern stock for each share of Savannah Electric stock.
- Off-system sales increase to 21.5 billion even without the Gulf State Utilities contract, which is still under legal dispute.
- Georgia Power agrees to transfer majority ownership of the Rocky Mountain project to Oglethorpe Power Corporation.
- Unit 3 of Plant Scherer begins commercial operation.
- Computer trading and investor panic drive the Dow Jones industrial average down 22.6 percent in one of history’s worst days on Wall Street; Southern Company stock drops $2 a share to close at $20 on October 19.
- Bob Scherer is named the 1987-1988 chairman of EEI.
- In addition to serving as Georgia Power chairman, Scherer resumes duties as president when Miller retires. Robert Radcliff retires from Southern’s board, and Jack Edwards joins the board as an outside director.
1988
1988

Plant Riverside
- Savannah Electric becomes the fifth operating company effective March 3, following approvals from stockholders, FERC, and the SEC. Savannah Electric’s plants Riverside, Kraft, and McIntosh join Southern’s generation fleet.
- The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and the Internal Revenue Service begin a criminal investigation, charging Southern’s operating subsidiaries with inappropriate tax accounting for spare parts used in power plants. The companies respond that their tax accounting practices are proper. As the investigation moves forward, the U.S. Attorney looks into other issues, resulting in Georgia Power pleading “no contest” to a misdemeanor charge related to fundraising for a PSC candidate.
- The Georgia PSC halts the second phase of Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle-related rate increase, awaiting outcome of the IRS investigation. (The following February, the PSC agrees to allow the next phase to take effect.)
- Georgia Power voluntarily shuts down Plant Hatch to fix problems identified in an INPO audit.
- Southern Company decides to form a new subsidiary, Southern Nuclear Operating Company, to manage its nuclear operations. While awaiting SEC approval, the nuclear corporate staffs in Alabama and Georgia form project teams.
- Southern signs a new long-term power sales contract with Florida Power and expands agreements with JEA and FP&L.
- Following a FERC ruling that its off-system sales agreements are valid, the company files a counterclaim against Gulf States Utilities, charging breach of contract. Through 1988, Southern has excluded $149 million from earnings in the event some of the amounts due from Gulf States are not collectible.
- In resolving a dispute that dates back to 1971, Alabama Power agrees to sell the Alabama Electric Cooperative 8.16 percent of units 1 and 2 of Plant Miller instead of a portion of Plant Farley. (The deal closes in 1992.)
- Southern Company adopts a new incentive pay program to stimulate productivity and launches studies to prepare for anticipated competition and deregulation.
- DOE selects four SCS proposals totaling $71 million; three projects will test processes for removing NOx and one will test equipment for reducing SO2 at coal-fired plants.
- DOE also awards Southern’s research group an $8 million grant to study another advanced coal-cleaning technology at Willsonville called hydrocarbon agglomeration.
- NRC requires utilities to develop plans for funding the ultimate decommissioning of power reactors; Alabama Power and Georgia Power establish external trust funds and start setting aside internal reserves earmarked for that purpose.
- Public Service of New Hampshire files the first utility bankruptcy in more than 50 years.
- Bill Dahlberg becomes president of Georgia Power; Bob Scherer continues as chairman. Allen Franklin is named president of SCS. Also joining Southern’s board are Savannah’s Gignilliat and McIntosh.
1989
1989
- Unit 2 of Plant Vogtle begins commercial operations; units are added at plants Miller and Scherer.
- The Georgia PSC allows Georgia Power to recover $218 million over a 10-year phase-in period. Still at issue are disallowances that threaten to force another write-off.
- Unit 2 of Plant Farley sets a world record for continuous operation – 453 days – for pressurized water reactors; Hatch's two units also set records for boiling water reactors by being on line 251 days.
- A Southern corporate plane crashes on April 10, killing Gulf Power's senior vice president Jake Horton and SCS pilots Mike Holmes and John Major; the National Transportation Safety Board and other investigators will never be able to determine a definitive cause of the crash.
- The continuing U.S. Attorney's investigation in Atlanta expands to include issues from a separate IRS investigation in Pensacola, and the SEC launches a similar investigation. On October 31, Gulf Power pleads guilty to two offenses related to illegal political contributions; the company is fined $500,000.
- A December chill results in a new winter peak demand of 20.8 million kilowatts; the new summer peak is 24.4 million kilowatts.
- More than 1,000 system employees travel to the Carolinas and the Virgin Islands to help respond to the destruction of Hurricane Hugo.
- A more competitive utility environment is emerging from the growth of independent power producers; SEI begins competing for IPP and cogeneration projects.
- Georgia is considered to have one of the nation's most competitive markets because large customers can choose their energy providers; Georgia Power captures 73 percent of the customer-choice revenues during the year.
- Alabama Power's rate stabilization plan is extended through 1994. The performance evaluation plan used to set Mississippi Power's retail rates is re-affirmed when the state legislature supports the PSC's authority to establish the plan.
- Farley becomes president and CEO of Southern Nuclear; Elmer B. Harris becomes president of Alabama Power. Bill Dahlberg becomes president and CEO of Georgia Power upon Scherer's retirement; Paul J. DeNicola becomes president of Mississippi Power upon Barton's retirement; Jeff Hamburg becomes president of SEI.
1990
1990

Power System Development Facility in Wilsonville
- Southern Decadal Statistics: Assets–$20 billion; revenues–$8 billion; net income–$822 million or $2.60 per share ($604 million/$1.91 following one-time write-off); dividends–$2.14 per share; stock price–$27.88; system capacity–30,200 megawatts; peak demand–26 million kilowatts; power sales–142 billion kilowatt-hours; customers–3.3 million; stockholders–263,046; employees–30,263; three-year construction budget–$3.8 billion; price of electricity–5.52 cents/kilowatt-hour total sales, 7.07 cents for residential sales.
- After the Georgia supreme court upholds a Plant Vogtle disallowance, Southern Company takes a $218 million write-off, reducing its earnings 69 cents per share, which is below the dividend level.
- New Clean Air Act Amendments end a decade-long legislative debate over acid rain controls; the law requires major reductions in SO2 and NOx but also sets up a nationwide emission-allowances trading program to provide compliance flexibility.
- The U.S. Attorney’s office drops its criminal investigation of tax accounting for spare parts; a civil tax audit of Georgia Power continues.
- The dispute with Gulf States Utilities is settled with Southern Company receiving cash, common stock, and deferred payments valued at $300 million. Unit 4 of Plant Scherer, which previously was earmarked for Gulf States, is sold to Florida utilities for $810 million.
- The SEC approves the formation of Southern Nuclear, which begins managing operations at the system’s three nuclear plants
- Unit 1 of Plant Hatch sets another world record for boiling water reactors by operating 423 consecutive days.
- Gulf Power receives a rate increase of $14.1 million, reduced in the first two years by $2.3 million as a penalty for “mismanagement” related to illegal political contributions.
- Nearly $100 million in expenses are reduced in 1990 through coal contract renegotiations, volume procurement, inventory controls, and other efforts. Over the next three years, the company will take nearly a billion dollars out of its capital budgets in an attempt to offer more competitive prices.
- DOE awards Southern a $46 million contract for researching clean coal gasification at the Power System Development Facility in Wilsonville.
- Charles Chapman retires from the board.
1991
1991

Plant Miller
- Unit 4 of Plant Miller begins commercial operation, bringing to an end an ambitious construction program that has challenged Southern Company for the past two decades.
- In the final rate case related to Plant Vogtle, Georgia Power is granted a $117-million increase, a settlement that also recovers some costs deferred during previous hearings.
- Southern begins implementing a decade-long compliance plan for new clean air rules; the first phase involves installing low-NOx burners at eight plants and switching to low-sulfur coal.
- The availability of Southern's coal-fired units reach 91.2 percent, a new system record.
- The SEC concludes its investigation of Southern with no action beyond a consent order signed by Gulf Power agreeing to make no political contributions.
- A new stockholder derivative action lawsuit is filed against officers and directors of the company charging breach of fiduciary duty and violation of the federal Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act. The four-year legal dispute will end with a dismissal by a trial court and an appellate court ruling in 1995.
- DeNicola is named executive vice president of Southern Company and group executive responsible for representing the three coastal companies and SEI on Southern's board. David Ratcliffe becomes president of Mississippi Power. Pat McDonald becomes president of Southern Nuclear. J.R. Harris becomes interim president of SEI upon Hamburg's departure.
- Outside director Louis J. Willie joins the board.
1992
1992
- With earnings improving, Southern Company raises its dividend rate to 55 cents, its first increase since 1986.
- Southern's stock price reaches a record high of $39 on December 23.
- The spare parts accounting audits end with Georgia Power agreeing to pay $21 million in back taxes and interest.
- Southern refinances $2.4 billion in securities to save $45 million in annual interest costs; over the next three years, another $5 billion will be refinanced to save an additional $166 million.
- Peak demand hits 24.1 million kilowatts; operating companies develop integrated resource plans that include interruptible rates, time-of-use rates, and other demand-side options to reduce peaks and maximize use of the system's energy-supply network.
- Georgia Power reduces its workforce by 900 employees. The system's core business workforce is at 28,872, down from the construction-era peak of 32,557 in 1985.
- Southern Company forms a fossil/hydro business unit to bring non-nuclear plant operations under common management; Bill Guthrie leads the new effort as the system's first chief production officer.
- The Energy Policy Act promotes competition, energy efficiency, and alternative fuel use; grants IPPs and other market players access to utility grids for wholesale power transactions; but leaves the question of retail access for states to decide.
- After a decade of minimally contributing to earnings, SEI shows improved success with an IPP project in Oahu, Hawaii, a cogeneration project in King George, Virginia, and a repowering project in the republic of Slovakia.
- In Atlanta, Georgia Power opens the Technology Applications Center, where customers can see emerging electric technologies and test manufacturing applications.
- Southern Company College is created to enhance managers' competitive, financial, and leadership skills.
- Pat McDonald is named president and CEO of Southern Nuclear upon Farley's retirement. Tom Boren becomes president of SEI.
- Virginia Dwyer and Vince Whibbs retire from the board.
1993
1993

Little River Canyon National Park Reserve
- Earnings reach a record level of $1 billion. Southern Company ranks in the top quartile of U.S. electric utilities in terms of return on common equity. The board raises dividends to 57 cents a share.
- Alabama Power helps attract a Mercedes-Benz manufacturing plant to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama; the economic boost is estimated at $7 billion and 15,000 new jobs.
- SEI wins power plant contracts in Argentina, Chile, Nevada, and New York and becomes 50 percent owner of Freeport Power in the Grand Bahamas.
- Alabama Power sells 8,500 acres of land to help create the Little River Canyon National Preserve, the first site in the state to be designated a part of the National Parks system; proceeds help establish the Alabama Power Foundation to provide charitable donations and grants in the areas of education, health, human services, and the arts.
- In an agreement with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Power helps create a state park at Tallulah Gorge; the partners agree to jointly manage and protect 3,000 wooded acres surrounding the gorge and hydro dam.
- Georgia Power builds an Electric Vehicle Research Center in Atlanta to test and promote the development of EVs.
- Addison becomes the 1993-1994 chairman of EEI.
- George Hairston becomes president of Southern Nuclear upon McDonald's retirement.
1994
1994
- Southern Company common stock splits two for one; the adjusted dividend rate is 29.5 cents per share.
- Southern Communications is organized as a new subsidiary to build and operate a wireless communication network across the service territory; in addition to meeting system dispatch radio and cell phone needs, the company will market services to external customers; Roy Barron is named president.
- Southern Company reduces its workforce by 1,000; human resources, accounting/finance, information technology, volume procurement, are among the administrative functions restructured systemwide to achieve efficiencies and eliminate duplicate efforts.
- Marketing forms a “key account” group to provide specialized energy services to the system’s 2,000 largest commercial and industrial customers.
- California regulators shake up the industry by announcing the nation’s first retail deregulation plan; industrial customers will be the first group to choose their energy providers and all customers will be given choice by 2002. The threat of retail access accelerates as nearly half of the states adopt some form of electricity restructuring.
- Of the new large customers who already have choice in Alabama and Georgia, Southern wins 88 percent of the revenue at risk.
- Six combustion turbines are added at Savannah Electric’s Plant McIntosh.
- Southern Electric Investments is renamed Southern Development and Investment Group with a mission to test and market more energy-management products.
- The Mississippi PSC approves PEP-2, an enhanced version of its Performance Evaluation Plan; the tool continues to stabilize rates and Mississippi Power’s finances.
- SEI becomes part owner of PowerGen, the electric supplier serving Trinidad and Tobago, and acquires the Mobile Energy Services Company, a cogeneration and chemical recovery complex near Mobile, Alabama.
- Southern Company joins a government-industry’s Climate Challenge program and commits to reducing, offsetting, or sequestering nearly 12 million metric tons of CO2 emissions by 2000.
- Dahlberg becomes president of Southern Company; Addison continues at chairman and CEO. Franklin becomes president of Georgia Power; DeNicola is named president of SCS; Travis J. Bowden becomes president of Gulf Power; McCrary retires.
- John McIntosh and Louis Willie retire from the board; new outside directors are Bruce S. Gordon and A.D. (Pete) Correll.
1995
1995

SEI aquires SWEB, a utility serving southern England SEI opens a public trading floor
- Fortune Magazine ranks Southern Company as “most admired” among the nation’s electric utilities.
- Net income reaches $1.1 billion, and the dividend is raised to 30.5 cents.
- Dahlberg becomes chairman, president, and CEO of Southern upon Addison’s retirement March 1. Dahlberg outlines goals for becoming “America’s Best Diversified Utility” and introduces “Southern Style” to define behaviors expected of all employees.
- An additional 1,000 employees leave the workforce as restructuring continues and reduce overhead costs by 20 percent.
- Tom Boren is named president and CEO of SEI and leads the subsidiary in acquiring SWEB, a utility serving 1.3 million customers in southwestern England.
- Southern Company is among 110 utilities, investment houses, and energy traders receiving FERC approval to trade in wholesale markets nationwide. SEI opens a 24-7 trading facility; power marketing is expected to become a $100-billion annual business.
- Hurricane Erin affects 215,000 Gulf Power customers on August 3; the storm is eclipsed on October 6 by Hurricane Opal, which knocks out power to more than 1 million customers in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
- Dwight Evans is named president of Mississippi Power, replacing David Ratcliffe, who becomes Southern’s senior vice president for external affairs. Bob Dawson becomes president of Southern LINC, the new name for Southern Communication.
- Earl McLean and William Copenhaver retire from the board; John C. Adams and Gerald J. St. Pe’ join as outside directors.
1996
1996

Olympic Field Marshalls from Southern Company
- Southern Company becomes the nation’s largest generator of electricity; its rates are 16 percent below the national average.
- Georgia Power is the “Official Power Source of the 1996 Olympic Games,” hosted in Atlanta; 2,000 employees become Olympic volunteers, many of them assisting in the opening and closing ceremonies.
- Southern launches a national advertising program and re-brands itself; all companies adopt a common red triangle.
- Southern Electric International is renamed Southern Energy and becomes one of the top 10 power marketers with offices in 12 domestic and foreign markets. In northern Chile, Southern Energy builds a 160-megawatt plant for EDELNOR (Empresa Electrica del Norte), of which it owns 65 percent.
- Electricity futures begin trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 31.5 cents a share.
- In efforts to become a national energy provider, Southern Energy signs energy services agreements with 4,000 schools in California and 465 stores owned and operated nationwide by Federated Department Stores.
- Fearing that “stranded” investments will drive up residential power bills, the Georgia PSC approves a new rate plan allowing Georgia Power to accelerate depreciation on high-cost power plants, and the Alabama legislature passes a law to prevent new competitors from “cherry picking” large industrial loads.
- Georgia Power appeals a PSC order disallowing a portion of the Rocky Mountain Project investments, but the company will have to take a $21 million write-off after the case is settled two years later.
1997
1997
- Southern Energy acquires 80 percent (later increased to 100 percent) of Consolidated Electric Power Asia (CEPA), which has assets in China and the Philippines. Southern Energy also acquires 26 percent of Berlin-based BEWAG and a small interest in Brazilian energy company CEMIG.
- Quarterly dividend is at 32.5 cents.
- For the third year, Fortune Magazine ranks Southern Company as the most admired U.S. electric utility.
- Southern LINC has 60,000 wireless units operating in the Southeast.
- Southern Telecom is formed to provide dark fiber optic and wholesale telecommunications services to businesses in the Southeast.
- Southern Energy forms a joint venture with Vastar Resources, creating Southern Company Energy Marketing to offer electricity and natural gas in competitive markets.
- Although revenues jump nearly 22 percent, Southern Company earnings decline 14 percent; a windfall profits tax on SWEB operations reduces earnings by $111 million.
- Southern's wholesale energy marketing arm in the Southeast, Southern Wholesale Energy, has 4,000 megawatts of generating capacity under contract.
- EPA revises the national ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter, requiring further reductions in NOx emissions at fossil-fueled power plants.
- New England Electric becomes the first utility to divest generation assets; ISO New England becomes the first independent system operator for regional transmission grids.
- Ed Holland is named president of Savannah Electric upon Gignilliat's retirement.
1998
1998
- Southern Company common stock closes the year at $29.06, a new year-end record; dividends are raised to 33.5 cents.
- The operating companies hold the top five positions in a nationwide survey measuring satisfaction among large customers.
- Southern Energy sells 26 percent of its interest in SWEB. Domestically, it acquires plant assets in New England and announces plans to acquire generating capacity in California, Texas, New York, and Wisconsin.
- Southern Company Energy Marketing is the nation's second largest power marketer.
- To offset carbon dioxide emissions, Southern begins researching new clean-coal technologies at its Power System Development facility in Wilsonville, Alabama, and announces a program to plant 20 million trees (later expanded to 30 million).
- Scottish Power's purchase of Pacificorp becomes the first foreign takeover of a U.S. utility; UK's National Grid announces plans to purchase New England Electric System.
- Charles McCrary is named chief production officer and head of the fossil/hydro group with the retirement of Guthrie.
- Zack T. Pate is named a director; William Parker retires from the board.
1999
1999
- Within a dot.com market bubble, Southern Company stock falls 19 percent, ending the year at $23.50 even though earnings increased more than 30 percent to a record of $1.3 billion; the company tries to shore up its stock price by repurchasing 50 million shares.
- Southern Energy buys generation assets in California and New York and a 9.9 percent interest in Shandong International Power Development Company.
- Southern Energy also sells the power supply system of SWEB, announces plans to sell its holdings in Argentina and Chile, and files Chapter 11 on Mobile Energy Services in response to the closing of a pulp mill, its primary customer.
- FERC issues rules encouraging utilities to form regional transmission organizations, which Southern will explore with neighboring utilities over several years.
- Southern LINC grows to nearly 200,000 customers.
- Through environmental controls and compliance strategies since 1990, Southern has reduced its SO2 emissions by 30 percent and its NOx emissions by 40 percent; it also has reduced, avoided, or offset 33 million metric tons of CO2 emission.
- EPA initiates a lawsuit against Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and SCS for alleged violations of new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act; the civil action is expanded the following year to include Gulf Power, Mississippi Power, and Savannah Electric; the lawsuits will be contested over the next eight years.
- To address one-hour ozone non-attainment, Georgia and Alabama adopt new rules that require additional NOx controls on power plants in the Atlanta and Birmingham areas by 2003.
- Georgia Power rates decrease by $262 million on January 1 with an additional $24 million reduction the following year; the rate order allows the company to continue accelerating amortization or depreciation of assets and to earn above a 12.5 percent return through an arrangement that shares benefits with customers.
- Allen Franklin becomes president and chief operating officer of Southern Company; Ratcliffe becomes president and CEO of Georgia Power. Upon the retirement of Boren, Marce Fuller becomes president and CEO of Southern Energy. Upon the retirement of DeNicola, Dahlberg assumes the duties of president and CEO of SCS in addition to his role as chairman of Southern Company.
- Dorrit J. Bern, Tomas F. Chapman, Donald M. James, and David J. Lesar join the board; retiring from the board are outside directors John Adams, Jack Edwards, Bill Rushton, Gloria Shatto, and Herbert Stockham.
2000
2000

Combustion turbine units at Plant Dahlberg begin commercial operations

Y2K Bug Press Conference
- Southern Decadal Statistics: Assets–$31.4 billion; revenues–$10 billion; net income–$994 million or $2.13 per share; dividends–$1.34 per share; stock price–$33.25; system capacity–32,800 megawatts; peak demand–31.4 million kilowatts; power sales–177 billion kilowatt-hours; customers–3.9 million; stockholders–160,116; employees–26,021; three-year construction budget–$7.2 billion; price of electricity–5.42 cents/kilowatt-hour total sales, 7.29 cents for residential sales.
- In April, the board announces a decision to split the company into two businesses; Southern Company will continue as a regulated utility operating in the Southeast and Southern Energy will spin off as a separate diversified energy company
- In preparing for the spin-off, Southern Energy changes its name to Mirant Corporation and, on October 2, Southern completes an initial public offering of 66.7 million shares (19.7 percent) of the new company.
- The spin-off plans unlock value previously unrecognized by investors; Southern Company’s common stock closes the year at a record $33.25, increasing its market value by $7 billion in a single year. The stock boost is aided in part by a burst in the stock market bubble that sends investors scurrying to conservative, risk-adverse companies.
- The first eight combustion turbine units at Plant Dahlberg, near Commerce, Georgia, begin commercial operations.
- A lawsuit alleging race discrimination is filed against Georgia Power and Southern Company Energy Solutions.
- Because DOE has yet to resolve issues for permanently disposing of spent nuclear fuel, a new dry storage facility is completed and begins operating at Plant Hatch; a similar facility is under construction at Plant Farley, where on-site storage needs will exceed capacity by 2008. (Sufficient storage capacity is available at Plant Vogtle through 2014.)
- The California experiment with retail deregulation is derailed by spiraling energy prices, brownouts, and threats of blackouts; the fiasco will cause other states to pull back in the rush to deregulate retail markets.
- The “Y2K Bug” scare is a nonevent; the industry and Southern Company survive through a massive, multi-year reprogramming and computer patching effort.
- The fossil/hydro group is renamed Southern Company Generation.
- Daniel P. Amos joins the board as an outside director; Pete Correll and David Lesar leave the board.
2001
2001
- Southern Company completes the spin-off by distributing 272 million shares of Mirant stock on April 2; Mirant's stock soars above $46 within a month.
- Allen Franklin becomes chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company; Dahlberg retires from Southern and becomes chairman of Mirant.
- Southern Power Company is created as a new subsidiary to own, manage, and finance wholesale generating assets in the Southeast; McCrary becomes president in addition to his role as president of Southern Company Generation. Southern Power has 800 megawatts of capacity at year-end, and the competitive generation business contributes $153 million to Southern's earnings.
- Alabama Power wins EEI's Emergency Response Award for power restoration after a severe windstorm.
- Southern is the highest rated utility on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
- Units are added at Plant Dahlberg.
- In the race discrimination lawsuit against Georgia Power and Southern Company Energy Solutions, a district court ruling denies a plaintiffs' motion for class certification. (The ruling will be reaffirmed three years later by an appeals court judge.)
- The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. push the nation into a deeper recession. In December, Enron declares bankruptcy in the midst of stunning revelations about its accounting tricks; Mirant struggles to stay afloat as Enron's dramatic fall threatens to take down the entire energy marketing and IPP sector.
- McCrary is named president and CEO of Alabama Power upon the retirement of Harris; Paul Bowers becomes president of Southern Company Generation and Southern Power. Mike Garrett is named president and CEO of Mississippi Power upon Evan's move to Southern as executive vice president of external affairs. Anthony James becomes president of Savannah Electric upon Holland's move to Southern as executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer. Andy Dearman is named executive vice president and chief transmission officer.
2002
2002

Plant Franklin
- Despite a recession, Southern Company achieves earnings of $1.32 billion, or $1.86 per share. At $20.3 billion, Southern ranks No.1 in market value in the S&P 500 Electric Index.
- Southern enters the retail gas business in Georgia with Southern Company GAS serving 200,000 customers.
- In the new “electric and gas utility” category, Southern Company is rated “America’s Most Admired,” by Fortune Magazine for the second consecutive year.
- The first unit of Plant Franklin begins operating in Smiths, Alabama; units are added at plants Wansley and Lansing Smith.
- Mirant begins selling assets in an attempt to shore up its credit ratings and survive the recession and fallout from Enron’s collapse; but by July, its stock is trading under $4.
- In a biomass project, Alabama Power burns switchgrass at Plant Gadsden, which helps the plant reduce emissions.
- Tom Fanning is named president of Gulf Power upon Bowden’s retirement.
- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act passes Congress in response to a number of corporate failures and scandals; the new law brings about major changes in financial reporting, compliance programs, and corporate information transparency.
2003
2003

Plant Harris
- Southern Company earnings reach $1.47 billion; the board increases dividends to 34.25 cents per share.
- In August, more than 50 million people in the Northeast lose power in the nation’s worst blackout; Southern Company’s transmission personnel take quick action to keep the cascading problem from affecting customers in the Southeast.
- Southern Power completes two units at Plant Harris, near Autaugaville, Alabama, and begins operations at Plant Stanton, near Orlando, Florida; the additions increase the company’s competitive generation capacity to 4,800 megawatts.
- Southern Company is rated “America’s Most Admired,” by Fortune Magazine for the third consecutive year.
- Mirant files for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 and begins work on a reorganization plan.
- Southern spends nearly $1 billion on equipment to reduce NOx emissions as part of the effort to address ozone nonattainment in the Atlanta and Birmingham areas.
- Franklin is named the 2003-2004 chairman of EEI.
- Susan Story is named president of Gulf Power upon Fanning’s return to Southern as chief financial officer.
- J. Neal Purcell is elected to the board as an outside director; L.G. Hardman retires from the board.
2004
2004

Destruction caused by Hurricane Ivan
- Quarterly dividend raised to 35 cents a share.
- Hurricane Ivan disrupts service to 1.6 million system customers across four states; service is restored to all who were able to receive power safely within two weeks.
- Southern Company joins NuStart Energy Development, a consortium to demonstrate and test a new licensing process for constructing advanced nuclear power plants.
- Georgia Power gets a 4.2 percent rate increase, its first since 1991.
- Georgia Power acquires from Southern Power two units under construction at Plant McIntosh; in approving the transfer, the Georgia PSC disallows $16 million of the costs, which reduces Southern’s net income by $9.5 million.
- Southern pays $39 million in additional taxes and interests related to an IRS audit of Mirant’s 2000 and 2001 tax records; the company seeks reimbursement as a creditor in Mirant’s Chapter 11 proceedings.
- In cooperation with DOE and the Orlando Utilities Commission, Southern begins work on a commercial-scale coal gasification facility in central Florida.
- Southern Company joins the industry in pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 to 5 percent over the next decade through DOE’s Climate VISION program.
- Southern Power completes a third unit at Plant Franklin.
- Ratcliffe becomes chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company upon Franklin’s retirement. Garrett becomes president of Georgia Power. Anthony Topazi becomes president of Mississippi Power. Barnie Beasley becomes president and CEO of Southern Nuclear upon Hairston’s retirement.
- Ratcliffe redefines “Southern Style” in three core values: superior performance, unquestionable trust, and total commitment.
- Francis S. Blake joins the board as an outside director.
2005
2005

Bush commenting on Hurricane Katrina

Mercury research center at Plant Crist
- Hurricane Katrina leaves nearly 1 million Southern customers in the dark, two-thirds of them in Alabama; damage to Mississippi Power reaches historic proportions and disrupts service to all 195,000 of its customers; through an heroic rebuilding effort, service is restored in 12 days.
- For their response to Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi Power, Alabama Power, and Gulf Power receive EEI Emergency Response awards; Emergency Assistance awards also go to Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Gulf Power.
- Southern Company sells Southern Company GAS to an affiliate of Cobb EMC.
- Quarterly dividend increases to 37.25 cents.
- Southern Power acquires 680-megawatt Plant Oleander in central Florida.
- President George W. Bush signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which contains mandatory reliability standards, measures to increase energy efficiency and fuel diversity, and incentives for nuclear power developments. The act also repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, but gives FERC greater authority to protect consumers and prevent utility market manipulations.
- Alabama Power receives a favorable district court ruling in a lawsuit related to alleged new source review violations; because not all issues are dismissed, Alabama Power and EPA continue mediation, which results in a 2006 settlement. (Similar charges against Georgia Power and Savannah Electric have been administratively closed since 2001.)
- Southern Company begins a 10-year, $6 billion environmental program that will reduce SO2, NOx, and mercury emissions 70 percent below current levels; Gulf Power constructs the nation's first comprehensive mercury research center at Plant Crist.
- Southern Company joins the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a national effort to develop the first near zero emissions coal burning plant.
- Legal matters related to a race discrimination lawsuit against Georgia Power and Southern Company Energy Solutions come to a close on October 17 when the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal by plaintiffs.
- In bankruptcy court, Mirant files a complaint against Southern Company and seeks monetary damages in excess of $2 billion for alleged actions that forced Mirant to breach its fiduciary duties to creditors; Southern files a response denying the charges and prepares to defend the fairness of its actions in court.
2006
2006

Southern Nuclear files for an early site permit for two new units at Plant Vogtle
- Savannah Electric merges with Georgia Power on July 1.
- Southern Nuclear files for an early site permit for two new units at Plant Vogtle, a preliminary step in evaluating proposals to build a new nuclear plant.
- Southern Power buys generating capacity at two Progress Energy facilities in Arcadia, Florida, and Salisbury, North Carolina; with the acquisitions, Southern Power has 6,700 megawatts of competitive generation.
- Complying with a proposed FERC agreement, Southern Company splits its competitive generation business into two segments – Southern Power continues to own and operate generating units that supply energy in competitive markets; wholesale power sales from operating company units are incorporated into the system's traditional business.
- The system sets four new peak records over eight summer days; the highest was on August 10 at 38,056 megawatts.
- The quarterly dividend is raised to 38.75 cents a share.
- Mirant emerges from Chapter 11 under new management and is re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange; Mirant's complaint against Southern Company is transferred from a district court in Texas to the Northern District court in Georgia.
- Juanita Baranco and William G. Smith Jr. join the board as outside directors when Daniel Amos and Bruce Gordon retire.
2007
2007
- Taking another step toward building two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle, Southern Nuclear files an application with the NRC for a combined construction and operating license on behalf of the co-owners.
- New peak demand records were set on five consecutive days, reaching 40,870 megawatts on August 22.
- Southern's quarterly dividend rate moves up to 40.25 cents per share.
- Uncertainties about new Florida regulations on carbon emissions causes Southern Power to cancel plans to build a 285-megawatt, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant near Orlando.
- Mississippi Power begins a feasibility study and certification process for a proposed IGCC plant in Kemper County; using the new design and carbon capture technology could reduce carbon emissions by 65 percent.
- A settlement of EPA's new source review lawsuit against Alabama Power is returned to district court for further consideration following both an appeals of the settlement and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar case against Duke Power.
- Outside directors Bill Habermeyer Jr., Jon A. Boscia, and Warren A. Hood Jr. join the board.
2008
2008
- Southern Company begins work on one of the nation’s first carbon capture and sequestration projects, at Mississippi Power’s Plant Daniel.
- Fanning becomes chief operating officer with responsibility for non-nuclear generation, transmission, and research and environmental affairs. Bowers replaces Fanning as CFO. C. Alan Martin is named president and CEO of Southern Company Services, with responsibility for SouthernLINC Wireless in addition to various service company functions. Holland continues as EVP and general counsel but assumes additional responsibilities for external affairs.
- Georgia Power signs an agreement for the engineering and construction of two new nuclear units using Westinghouse Electric’s AP1000 advanced nuclear designs. Plans for the proposed units still are subject to a number of state and federal approvals.
- A Georgia Power base rate increase of $99.7 million goes into effect, as does a special tariff of $222 million to recover costs related to environmental compliance.
- System operating companies begin installing advanced metering equipment that not only will automate readings but also will provide customers and the companies with comprehensive data needed dozens of applications ranging from speeding power restoration to energy conservation. Southern plans to install 4.5 million “smart meters” by 2012.
- Southern Company raises its quarterly dividend rate to 42 cents per share.
- Ratcliffe becomes the 2008-2009 chairman of EEI.
- James H. “Jim” Miller III is named president and CEO of Southern Nuclear upon Beasley’s retirement.
- For the ninth consecutive year, Southern Company is rated the nation’s top energy utility in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
- In what will become the most challenging economic recession since World War II, stock prices plummet. Initially, the Southeast is impacted less than the rest of the nation and Southern Company is able to maintain flat earnings and its stock close the year at $37, down only 4.5 percent from the previous year.
- Outside director Veronica M. Hagen is named to the board.
2009
2009
- Southern Company begins work on one of the nation's first carbon capture and sequestration projects, at Mississippi Power's Plant Daniel.
- Industrial sales fall 11.8 percent as the economic recession continues throughout 2009. Despite the challenges, Southern Company contains costs to report earnings of $1.65 billion, or $2.07 a share, compared with 2008 earnings of $1.74 billion, or $2.26 a share. Southern's common stock closes the year at $33.32.
- Mississippi Power announces plans to build a 582-megawatt Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kemper County, Mississippi. The plant will be the first advanced gasification generating facility with carbon capture capabilities in Mississippi and one of the first in the country.
- Georgia Power announces plans to convert its Plant Mitchell, near Albany, Georgia, from coal to biomass.
- Southern Company raises its quarterly dividend rate to 43.75 cents per share.
- DOE selects Southern Company to manage and operate its National Carbon Capture Center to test various technologies for capturing CO2 from coal-based power plants. The facility is to be located at the company's Power Systems Development Facility south of Birmingham.
- Southern Company also announces plans to build a demonstration facility for capturing CO2 emissions at Alabama Power's Plant Barry near Mobile.
- An energy company in China is the first to implement a commercial application of TRIG – Transport Integrated Gasification – a clean-coal technology Southern Company helped to develop.
- The NRC awards an Early Site Permit for Vogtle units 3 and 4. The permit is a streamlined licensing process to reduce regulatory uncertainty and resolves many safety and environmental issues related to nuclear construction.
- Southern Company celebrates 60 years of its stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Southern Power breaks ground on a new 720-megawatt, gas-fueled plant near Grover, North Carolina and on a 100-megawatt biomass plant near Austin, Texas. The subsidiary also buys the West Georgia Generating Company, which includes a 600-megawatt facility near Thomaston, Georgia.
- As part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program, Southern Company is awarded $165 million to invest in its smart energy grid program.
- Chris Womack is named executive vice president, external affairs, for Southern Company.
2010
2010

Solar project in New Mexico
- Southern Company makes international headlines when President Obama announces that DOE nuclear loan guarantees are to be awarded to the first new nuclear power units to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years. The conditional commitments are to be applied for future borrowings related to the construction of two new units under construction at Georgia Power's Plants Vogtle.
- On January 6, Southern Company sets its third new winter peak of the year while temperatures across the territory remained in the teens. At 37,224 megawatts, the new peak even surpasses the summer peak of 2009.
- In conjunction with Turner Renewable Energy and First Solar, Inc., Southern Company helps build one of the nation's largest solar projects, a 30-megawatt photovoltaic power plant in New Mexico.
- Southern Company raises its quarterly dividend rate to 45.50 cents per share.
- Groundbreaking ceremonies mark the beginning of construction for Mississippi Power's IGCC plant. The Kemper County facility is renamed Plant Ratcliffe.
- Tom Fanning becomes president of Southern Company August 1 and chairman and CEO upon Ratcliffe's retirement on December 1. Anthony Topazi becomes chief operating office, and Ed Day replaces him as president of Mississippi Power. Art Beattie becomes Southern Company chief financial officer, replacing Paul Bowers, who becomes chief operating officer, then president and CEO of Georgia Power upon Garrett's retirement. Susan Story is named president and CEO of Southern Company Services, and Mark A. Crosswhite replaces her as president and CEO of Gulf Power.
- William O. (Billy) becomes executive vice president and chief transmission officer for Southern Company upon Dearman's retirement. Oscar C. Harper is named president and CEO of Southern Power upon Bates's retirement.
- Outside directors Larry Thompson, Dale E. Klein, and Stephen R. Specker join the board; directors Thomas F. Chapman and Gerald J. St. Pé retire from the board.

Welcome

As a holding company, Southern Company was established in 1912. But the history of our system, and of electricity in general, goes back much farther than that. Use this timeline to chart the growth of our industry over the centuries.

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