Southern Company

Southern Company is an American electric utility holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is currently the 16th largest utility company in the world and the fourth largest in the U.S. Through its subsidiaries it owns and operates more than 42,000 megawatts of generation capacity and serves 4.4 million customers in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi. Southern Company’s regulated regional electric utilities serve a 120,000-square-mile (310,000 km²) territory with 27,000 miles (43,000 km) of distribution lines.

Overview

Southern Company is one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States and 149th on the Fortune 500 listing of the largest U. S. corporations. It has more than 500,000 shareholders (NYSE: SO) and has been traded since September 30, 1949.

As of 2014, Southern Company is building the first new nuclear units in the U.S. in 30 years at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Georgia; building one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the U.S. at Cimarron, New Mexico; building one of the largest biomass plants at Nacogdoches, Texas; and installing over four million smart meters by 2012.