Southern earns $4.3 billion in ‘transformative’ year

But company executives touted another 17% annual growth in electricity sales from data centers and other large-load customers and were optimistic that such growth would continue.

“I’m convinced that 2025 will stand out as a transformative year for Southern Co.,” Chief Executive Chris Womack said in a Thursday afternoon conference call with Wall Street analysts.

The robust growth from data centers contributed to a 1.7% annual increase in electricity sales across all Southern’s electric companies in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. This increase is more than double the cumulative growth the company has seen over the past decade, a sign the Southeast’s economy remains strong and resilient, David Poroch, Southern’s chief financial officer, said in an afternoon conference call with Wall Street analysts.

Fourth-quarter net income for Southern’s electric companies, including Georgia Power, rose to $588 million, up from $515 million the year before. Revenue for Georgia Power, which has 2.8 million residential and business customers across the state, rose to $2.7 billion for the quarter, compared with $2.6 billion the year before.

Southern, and Georgia Power in particular, are entering a period of substantial growth as the utility prepares to add a historic 10,000 megawatts of power plants to its grid during the next five years. The new generation — a mix of mostly gas-fired power plants and also solar and battery storage — is to serve an influx of data centers, large warehouses filled with computer servers to support artificial intelligence and other technology.

Indeed, executives said they are eyeing as much as 75 gigawatts of large-load customers across its three electric companies and outlined a hefty capital investment plan to support that. Southern now plans to spend $81 billion across its entire company footprint, with roughly 95% of that money going towards its regulated electric and gas companies.

That amount is a 31% increase in spending from Southern’s predictions a year ago.

“We’re in the midst of a watershed moment for the energy industry and for our nation,” Womack said.

Questions and conversation from Wall Street analysts centered mostly around the proliferation of data centers. Georgia Power struck a deal with the state Public Service Commission to protect residential and non-data center customers from footing the bill for those server farms, but some state lawmakers have argued those safety measures don’t go far enough.

Residents and elected officials have expressed concerns about how data centers would affect land, water and power consumption, and lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have introduced a flurry of bills to address those issues as well as tax breaks.

Carly Davenport, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, was among those who asked whether potential data center developers and customers have brought up those legislative proposals.

“On the data center outlook in Georgia, (there’s) just some noise around affordability,” she said.

Womack said the company is excited about how the pipeline for data centers is growing and that the momentum is expected to continue. What Southern, Georgia Power and the other electric utilities need to do is tout the benefits that the server farms will bring to all customers, he said.

“Those are the stories we have to tell,” he said.

Georgia Power is also facing an unusual regulatory climate after Democrats flipped two seats on the once all-Republican Georgia Public Service Commission. GOP Commissioner Tricia Pridemore, a vocal supporter of the utility and President Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel energy policies, also announced this week that she would not seek another term, creating an open seat in an already tense year for Republicans.

Paul Fremont, a managing partner with the firm Ladenburg Thalmann and Co. Inc, asked which Republican would be running for that seat.

“We’re not political prognosticators,” Womack said.

A note of disclosure

This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at AJC.com/donate/climate.