Seemingly unfazed by recent economic turmoil, profits at Atlanta-based utility giant Southern Company — the parent of Georgia Power — rose 19% in the first three months of 2025 compared to last year.
The company reported profits Thursday of $1.3 billion between January and the end of March, $200 million more than it earned at the start of 2024. Southern’s revenues also jumped in the first quarter to $7.8 billion, an increase of 17% compared to last year.
The company said profits were driven by higher revenues from its regulated utilities, partially offset by operations and maintenance costs, along with other obligations.
Southern President and CEO Chris Womack called the results a “solid start” to 2025.
“We are excited about the future of this company and continue to be encouraged by the customer growth and enthusiasm we’re seeing for our service territories,” Womack added.
On a shareholder earnings call Thursday afternoon, Womack acknowledged the current economic uncertainty, particularly the shifting tariffs President Donald Trump’s administration has placed on different goods and trading partners.
But Womack said Southern is well-positioned: Many of the company’s suppliers are in Mexico and Canada, which are exempt — for now — from most of Trump’s tariffs. For others, he said Southern is working on getting them “compliant.”
“Among the advantages for a company of our scale is a large portfolio of suppliers and strong vendor relationships to help navigate such challenges collaboratively and proactively,” Womack said.
Georgia Power was once again the company’s most profitable division, raking in just under $600 million in profits in the first quarter, up 36% compared to the start of 2024.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The utility, which has about 2.8 million electricity customers in Georgia, has benefited from a series of rate increases approved by regulators at the Georgia Public Service Commission. Since late 2022, the utility’s customers have faced a slew of PSC-approved rate hikes that have pushed the average Georgia Power customer’s bill up by about $43, according to company data. Some customers have seen even larger jumps in their monthly bills, depending on their rate plan and the amount of electricity they use.
In a January filing with the PSC, Georgia Power forecast that after years of relatively flat growth, the company could see 9,400 megawatts of new electricity load on its system. That’s roughly equal to nine times the maximum output of one of the new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta.
The overwhelming majority of that new demand — around 80%, according to Georgia Power’s executives — is coming from data centers that have been flocking to metro Atlanta and its surrounding counties.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The Trump-induced trade turmoil has led some developers to press pause on high-profile data center projects. Among them is Microsoft, which announced in March it was backing off on plans for 2 gigawatts of data center space.
In the Southeast, however, Womack said he was not hearing a “shift in tone” from data center customers.
“We still see a robust degree of high economic activity in our service territory,” he added.
To meet their needs, Georgia Power is currently seeking PSC approval to extend the life of some of its coal plants and modernize other aging power plants.
But according to a presentation prepared for investors, Georgia Power is also soliciting proposals through competitive bidding processes for around 13,000 megawatts of additional capacity to be brought online before 2031. The capacity will likely be filled by a mix of solar, battery storage systems and new gas-burning units — costs that could be largely shouldered by customers.
Those fleet additions, if approved, would roughly double the company’s current electricity generating capacity.
They could also juice the company’s future earnings. Georgia Power has proposed building and owning at least some of the new power assets it says it needs.
Georgia Power earns profits on capital costs for building power plants, transmission lines and upgrading infrastructure — costs that are typically recovered from customers through rates.
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