Southern Company is an American gas and electric holding company based in the southern United States. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with its executive offices also located in Birmingham, Alabama. The company is currently the second largest utility company in the US, in terms of its customer base. Through its subsidiaries serving 9 million customers of gas and electric utilities in nine states. The regulated Southern power company serves the 120,000 square miles (310,000 km 2 ) area with 27,000 miles (43,000 km) of distribution channels.
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The Southern Company is one of the largest energy providers in the United States and the 162th in the Fortune 500 list of the largest US corporations. It has over 500,000 shareholders (NYSE: SO) and has been trading since 30 September 1949.
The Southern Company subsidiary operates or develops renewable facilities: sun, wind, and biomass throughout the US, as well as the first new nuclear unit in the US within 30 years at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Georgia.
Four retail power companies, Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Mississippi Power, serve 120,000 square miles (310,000 km 2 ) in four states. Southern Power serves wholesale electrical customers throughout the US Southern Gas Company serving utility customers in seven states.
The South Company has the following companies:
- Alabama Power - the operating company, based in Birmingham. Serves two-thirds of southern Alabama.
- Georgia Power - the operating company, based in Atlanta. Serves all of Georgia, except most of the countryside.
- Gulf Power - the operating company, based in Pensacola, Florida. Serves mostly Florida Panhandle. An agreement was reached in May 2018 to sell Gulf Power to compete with Florida Power & amp; Light.
- Mississippi Power - an operating company, based in Gulfport. Serving the Gulf Coast Mississippi.
- Southern Enterprise Service - (originally called Southern Services, Inc.) - Birmingham, Alabama - Public Services
- Southern Linc - mobile phone provider - Atlanta, Georgia
- Nuclear South - engineering and operations for nuclear power plants - Birmingham, Alabama. (The Southern Company is the owner and operator of the majority of the Farley, Hatch and Vogtle nuclear power plants.)
- Southern Company Generation - fossil and hydro operation - Birmingham, Alabama.
- South Power - wholesale power station - Atlanta, Georgia.
- Southern Telecom - optical fiber communication and data services wholesale - Atlanta, Georgia.
- Southern Company Gas - serves gas utility customers and operates natural gas pipelines - Atlanta, Georgia.
- PowerSecure - distributed infrastructure technology - Wake Forest, North Carolina.
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History
Southern Companies can be traced back to 1924, when Southeastern Power & amp; Light was formed as a holding company for Alabama Traction, Light and Power (formed 1906), a direct pioneer of Alabama Power. Later that year, he formed Mississippi Power as a subsidiary, with Gulf Power following in 1925. In 1926, he joined Georgia Power (formed in 1902). In 1930, Southeastern Power & amp; Light merges into Commonwealth & amp; South Corporation. The new system includes five Northern companies and six Southern companies. However, in the late 1940s the Commonwealth & amp; Southern was dissolved to fulfill the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. Four of the Commonwealth & amp; Southern Southern Deep - Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power and Mississippi Power - are considered integrated systems and are thus allowed to remain under common ownership. A new holding company, Southern Company, was established in Delaware on November 9, 1945. It began operations in 1949, and moved to Georgia in 1950. In 1954-55, the company was involved in a Dixon-Yates contract with Atomic Energy. Commission, and related political controversies.
In 1981, Southern Company became the first holding company in 46 years to diversify its operations by forming an unregulated subsidiary. In January 1982, Southern Energy, Inc., started its official operations as a global energy company, growing to serve 10 countries on four continents. On April 2, 2001, Southern Company completed a spin-off of South Energy as Mirant Corporation.
Another Southern Company subsidiary - Southern Nuclear - began providing services in 1991 to a nuclear power plant system.
In 1996, Southern Communications Services began providing digital wireless communications services to Southern Company subsidiaries and also began marketing the service to the public in the Southeast as South Linc. Southern Telecom, a subsidiary of Southern Company telecommunications company, was established in 1997. Southern Telecom provides colocation and dark fiber optic lines for networking businesses.
On January 9, 2001, the Southern Company received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to establish Southern Power, a subsidiary to own, manage and finance the wholesale producer's assets in the Southeast. The new subsidiary is targeting wholesale customers.
On July 19, 2002, Southern Company Gas received certification from the Georgia Public Service Commission to enter the retail gas market. After nearly four years of operation, the company was sold and customers were transferred to a newly formed Cobb EMC affiliate, Gas South.
In 2016, the South Company acquired PowerSecure, a distributed energy infrastructure technology company, and AGL Resources (which was renamed Southern Company Gas). As a result of the merger of AGL Resources, Southern Company doubled its customer base, expanding its footprint and expanding its business scope by increasing its natural gas presence.
Crop Vogtle
The Southern Company subsidiary operates hydroelectric, gas, coal, and nuclear power plants to generate about 200 hours of electricity. In 2009, coal represented 57 percent of the company's output, followed by nuclear (23%) and natural gas (16%). Renewable hydroelectric power represents 4 percent of the South generation. Coal-based establishment declined significantly in 2009 from an average of 70% between 2005 and 2008.
In June 2010, the US Department of Energy provided a $ 8.3 billion loan guarantee to facilitate the construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta, Georgia. A subsidiary of Southern Company, Georgia Power, owns 45.7% of the current 2,430 MW facility, with co-owners Oglethorpe Power (30%) of Georgia Municipal Power Authority (22.7%) and Dalton City (1.6%). This plant is operated by Georgia Power. The $ 14 billion construction project is scheduled to be completed by 2022 and will double factory capacity.
Construction of two 1,154 MW reactors has been praised by Energy Secretary Steven Chu as "the first new nuclear power plant to breakthrough in decades". It is expected to create up to 3,500 jobs during the construction phase, and 800 after operations. But in March 2017 Westinghouse Electric Company, which built the plant, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a $ 9 billion loss from two US nuclear construction projects. The US government has provided $ 8.3 billion in loan guarantees for financing four nuclear reactors under construction in the US, and it is expected that ways to complete the plant can be approved.
Plant Ratcliffe
In September 2013 the EPA introduced new provisions on carbon emissions output at new power generation facilities. The proposed emission limit for the new energy source will be 1,100lbs of carbon dioxide per megawatt hours of electricity. Firstly acknowledging the need for this change, the South Company broke out at a 21st century clean coal facility in June 2010. The Southern, Mississippi Power subsidiary will operate the plant. The Kemper County Energy Facility, or Kemper Project, takes advantage of abundant lignite, or low-quality coal, available in Mississippi. In addition, he uses Transport Gasifier technology (TRIG). The TRIG technology is built on the idea of ​​dry-feed, non-slag gasifiers, which operate at lower temperatures than other coal gasifiers. This dried feed is crushed, heated, and circulated in a gasifier, producing synthetic flammable gas, syngas. Syngas can generate electricity with fewer emissions. Of course, other byproducts are produced, such as ammonia and sulfuric acid. These specialty products are sold for commercial use.
The EPA considers the Kemper Coal Project and other such planned facilities, a lifeline for the coal industry in the wake of the new climate change plan. Between 2010 and 2014, about 150 coal mills were closed.
In April 2014, the US Department of Energy has invested $ 270 million in the project. Southern Company, and its subsidiary, Mississippi Power anticipate that the Kemper Coal Factory will generate enough energy to serve more than 187,000 customers. Upon opening, the Kemper Coal Project is expected to reduce at least 65% of carbon dioxide, significantly exceeding the EPA's proposed requirement of 40%.
Partnership
The South Company is working with the US Department of Energy on various projects including transmission and distribution of intelligent infrastructure and network initiatives, environmental research programs, and nuclear generation. One of the more significant joint efforts, the DOE National Carbon Capture Center, is managed by the Southern Company and represents a national effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. At this location, Southern Company has worked with technology scientists and developers from governments, industry, and universities that are creating next generation carbon capture technologies.
Together with the DOE, the Southern Company has worked with KBR, another technology partner, to improve TRIG's advanced coal gasification technology. This "dirty coal" decomposition process, or lignite, into its chemical components is not only cleaner, but also cheaper and more reliable. The technology is currently being implemented at the Southern Kemper County power plant, one of several new coal facilities working to keep the US coal industry alive. The new facility will be built on a lignite coating, expected to reduce two-thirds of carbon dioxide emissions, leaving emissions at the same rate as natural gas. The Kemper Coal Factory is expected to fall well under new regulations implemented by the EPA, which limit the coal mine to 1,100 tons of megawatt megawatt megawatt carbon dioxide emissions.
In an effort to make this technology more achievable, Southern Company has partnered with China Shenhua Group to collaborate in the research, development and deployment of clean coal technologies in the US, China, and worldwide. This partnership with Shenhua, which is currently expected to add more than 400,000 megawatts of coal capacity by 2035, could lead to the widespread deployment of TRIG-equipped power plants across Asia. TRIG technology has the potential to not only help China with their growing carbon problems, but also allow countries to utilize their own low-quality coal.
The Kemper Project Controversy
In February 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled a Southern Power subsidiary, Mississippi Power, to return 186,000 South Mississippi taxpayers for tariff increases associated with the Kemper Project. This fee comes from the Mississippi's Baseload Act, allowing Mississippi Power to charge taxpayers for a power plant under construction.
In May 2016, the Southern Company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power announced that they are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the overruns at Kemper Project. The project was repeatedly delayed and costs increased from $ 2.88 billion to $ 6.58 billion.
In June 2016, Mississippi Power was sued by Treetop Midstream Services for cancellation of the contract to receive carbon dioxide from the Kemper Project as part of its carbon uptake and storage design. Treetop has been contracted to buy carbon dioxide from the Kemper plant and has built a pipeline in preparation for receiving gas. Treetop who is accused Mississippi Power has cheated and "deliberately misrepresented and hid the start date" for the Kemper Project, though Mississippi Power stated that the lawsuit was unfounded.
The company is also found to have violated whistle-blower laws that criticize alleged false statements by company management.
Environmental issues
As a coal-burning energy company, greenhouse gas emissions are a major environmental problem. In response to the growing public interest and financial community the company has enacted both corrective and palliative environmental actions.
Corrective measurement
The company recently opened the Plant Crist Test Center in Pensacola, Florida, where they hope to find new ways to reduce mercury emissions.
In addition, the company has developed advanced TRIG coal gasification technology that converts coal into gas that can be used to generate electricity with fewer emissions than traditional coal-fired power plants. The South Kemper Enterprise Project in Mississippi will be the only combined gasification combined (IGCC) plant in the US that will capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from commercial operations starting 2014.
Palliative action
The Southern Company is building one of the largest biomass plants in the country. The company expects the 100-megawatt Nacogdoches Generating Facility to serve the city of Austin for 20 years.
In partnership with Turner Renewable Energy, the company builds one of the largest solar photovoltaic plants in the US near Cimarron, New Mexico. The 30-megawatt project will supply electricity to about 9,000 homes.
The Company manages and operates the National Carbon Capture Center, a focal point of the US Department of Energy's efforts to develop carbon capture and greenhouse gas reduction technologies, where various projects to test geological sequestration are underway at Gorgas Plant in Alabama, Daniel Plant in Mississippi and company website others.
The Southern Company participated in Renew Our Rivers, a volunteer program to remove debris from rivers and other waterways throughout the Southeast, claiming more than 11 million pounds of rubbish was removed or recycled in the Renew Our Rivers.
Political donations
In May 2018, it was reported that the Southern Company had donated $ 1 million to America First Policies, a pro-Trump advocacy group known for participant Islamophobic comments and Nazi sympathy.
See also
- Jacob Horton
- List of US power companies
- Electric utilities
Note
External links
- DOE warrants press info
- PR Newswire release
- South Company Media Room
- Official Website of the Southern Company
- Forbes Global 2000 Utility Utility Industry Largest
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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