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SO pays good constant divi's....I have some $$$ tied up here for my Daughter...money gets sucked automatically out of my checking acct so I dont even miss it when it goes in.
you still in Southern?? Notice that you should be quite happy with the pps over $47, since your entry point was $30
3:17 PM Southern Company (SO): Declares $0.49/share quarterly dividend, in line with previous. Forward yield 4.1%. For shareholders of record Aug 06; Payable Sep 06; ex-div date Aug 02
Southern Co (SO) (45.94 -0.05)
April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators have signed off on an environmental review for two new nuclear reactors that Progress Energy Inc hopes to build at Levy County on Florida's west coast. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said in a release on Friday the NRC staff and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the final environmental impact statement for Levy's combined construction and operating licenses (COL). Before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) can approve of the 2,200-megawatt (MW) project, the NRC said its staff must complete a safety review and its judicial arm must decide on a challenge of the staff's environmental review by environmental groups. Progress Energy, a North Carolina-based power company, has said the NRC could issue a license for Levy in early 2013. Progress estimated the total cost of the Levy plant at $17 billion to $22 billion, including about $3 billion needed for transmission infrastructure, with the first unit expected to enter service in 2021 (Thomson Reuters 11:44 AM ET 04/30/2012
April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators completed environmental reviews for Progress Energy Inc's two new 1,100-megawatt reactors at the proposed Levy County nuclear site in Florida. North Carolina-based power company Progress has estimated the total cost of the Levy County plant at $17 billion to $22 billion, including about $3 billion needed for transmission infrastructure, with the first unit expected to enter service in 2021 and the second 18 months later. The following lists the NRC's schedule for deciding the combined construction and operating license (COL) applications for new reactors. The schedules for several of the proposed have been delayed, revised or suspended over the past few years. REACTOR(S) COMPANY DESIGN STATE DECISION Vogtle (2) Southern AP1000 GA Approved Summer (2) Scana AP1000 SC Approved Levy (2) Progress AP1000 FL 2013 Lee (2) Duke AP1000 SC 2013 Fermi (1) DTE (Thomson Reuters 11:45 AM ET 04/30/2012 More...)
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Southern (SO) Q1 2012 Earnings Call April 25, 2012 1:00 PM ET
We'll also be including slides as part of today's conference call. These slides provide details on the information that will be discussed on this call and you can access the slides on our Investor Relations website at www.southerncompany.com if you want to follow along during the presentation.
I'd like to take a few moments to update you on our recent progress on several important strategic fronts.
On February 10, we received the combined construction and operating licenses for Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, the first new nuclear units licensed in the United States in more than 30 years. Our nuclear development team has done an exemplary job in satisfying the requirements for these licenses, and I have every confidence that they will continue to provide strong leadership as the project moves forward.
We are making significant progress at Vogtle 3 and 4 as those of you following along on the slides can see. Work is already underway on the Nuclear Islands and cooling tower, and our heavy-lift derrick, one of the largest in the world, is being assembled. With the new licenses in hand, we have made a smooth transition into the next phase of the project and I look forward to sharing further updates with you in the future.
Meanwhile, the state regulatory process for Vogtle 3 and 4 continues to move forward in a constructive manner.
The Georgia Public Service Commission has improved $1.7 billion of project costs through June 30, 2011, and is currently reviewing the company's sixth semiannual construction monitoring report, which reflect an additional $300 million of cost through December 2011. In testimonies filed with the commission, Georgia Power has outlined up to $2 billion of potential additional benefits related to Vogtle 3 and 4 that we believe further enhance the value of this project for our customers. The commission's decision in this proceeding is expected in mid-August.
With any project of this magnitude and length, commercial disputes are to be expected. Discussions between the owners and the consortium are ongoing regarding a number of matters, including issues related to the timing of the receipt of the design control document, or DCD, and the combined operating licenses, or COLs. As you may be aware, the construction of Vogtle 3 and 4 will proceed under a new licensing framework that is significantly different from the one used previously.
In the past, nuclear plant operators designed and built their units first and then sought licensing approval for what they had already built. Under the new process, the nuclear units are constructed according to the COLs and the underlying DCD. There are processes in place to assure compliance with the design requirements specified in the DCD and the COLs. One process we have discussed with you before is ITAAC, which stands for inspections, tests, analyses and acceptance criteria. An additional oversight process is rigorous inspection by Southern Nuclear and the NRC that occurs throughout constructions.
As an example of this process, a recent routine NRC inspection revealed that limited details of the rebar construction in the Unit 3 Nuclear Island were not consistent with the DCD. We expect to receive official notice of this finding from the NRC. In the meantime, we are engaged in constructive discussions with the consortium to identify appropriate action. We can reasonably expect to encounter additional inspection issues between now and the time the new units are completed as they are a normal part of the nuclear construction process. Our goal is always the same: to build the safest, most reliable and most cost-effective nuclear generating units possible and to achieve our targets with regard to schedule and cost to customers.
Elsewhere, on April 24, the Mississippi Public Service Commission finalized a new certificate of public convenience and necessity for the Plant Ratcliffe in Kemper County, Mississippi. This became necessary after the Mississippi Supreme Court's recent reversal of the commission's previous order. In the interim, construction continued on the Kemper County site under a temporary authorization granted by the PSC on March 30 and will now proceed under the authority of the new permanent order. Initial startup and testing are now only 14 months away, and we remain confident that this project will provide the best value to customers over the long term. Targets remain achievable for both the Vogtle and Kemper County projects with regard to construction schedule and cost to customers.
As important as these projects are, they are only part of our all in "arrows in the quiver" strategy for building a 21st century energy portfolio. Georgia Power is making significant progress on 3 new combined-cycle natural gas units at Plant McDonough. The first of these units came online in December and with a nameplate capacity of 840 megawatts, and has actually been generating at significantly higher levels with an extremely efficient heat rate. The second unit is scheduled to begin operation later this month with the third unit expected to follow in November.
Southern Power is also nearing completion of the nation's largest biomass generation facility near Nacogdoches, Texas. This project, which is scheduled to begin commercial operation in June, will provide needed power for the city of Austin through a 20-year contract. These projects are consistent with our ongoing commitment to maintain a diverse and balanced generation portfolio, thereby enabling customers to benefit from the best available combination of low energy costs and system reliability.
During our last earnings call, we reported that our energy mix in the fourth quarter of 2011 was about 40% natural gas and 40% coal, with the rest coming from our lowest cost resources, nuclear and hydro. Compare that to 2007, where the mix was only 16% natural gas and 70% coal. As natural gas prices have remained low relative to other fossil sources, we have seen these fourth quarter trends continue. We now project that our mix for the full year of 2012 will be 47% natural gas and only 35% coal.
Given the high level of interest in this topic across our industry, here is a quick summary of what we're seeing here at Southern Company. During the first quarter of 2012, our natural gas combined cycle fleet achieved an average capacity factor of 70%. Based on today's forward curves, we estimate we could burn more than 600 Bcf for the full year 2012 or about 1.7 Bcf per day, almost 3x what we burned in 2007 when natural gas was only 16% of our generation mix.
Southern Company's gas purchases now account for more than 2% of all United States natural gas consumption, making us the third-largest user of natural gas among United States utilities. Even with natural gas prices below our forecast for 2012, we are well-positioned for managing coal inventories and passing lower energy costs on to customers.
To accomplish this, we've taken several proactive steps, which include increasing our ability to match coal purchases and burn through reduced volumes of contracted coal, maximizing and expanding on-site and off-site storage, working with our coal suppliers to defer, buy out or renegotiate existing contracts, and conducting managed burns when necessary. Our current expectation is that we will burn less than 45 million tons of coal in 2012 compared to the nearly 80 million tons we've burned at our peak in 2007. That said, we continue to maintain our operational flexibility to increase our use of coal in the event of a sharp reversal in the price of natural gas.
There remains excellent optionality in our generation fleet. As an illustration, by 2020, assuming a scenario of low natural gas prices and relatively high coal prices, our energy mix could be 57% gas and 22% coal. If fuel prices change to a high-gas, low-coal environment, the energy mix could be 34% gas and 45% coal. Under all scenarios, nuclear would remain in the 16% to 17% range. This level of flexibility will continue to be an important part of our operational planning philosophy going forward.
As always, our ultimate goal is to benefit customers, and here, we continue to succeed. As an example, earlier this year, Georgia Power filed a request to lower fuel rates. As proposed, this would reduce average fuel prices by 19% and average residential retail prices by 6%. We think achievements of this sort are the very best validation of our business model, that everything we do is based on providing the best value for customers served by our operating system.
I'd like to turn now to Art Beattie for a discussion of our financial highlights for this quarter, as well as an update on first quarter sales, the economic outlook for our region and our earnings estimates for the second quarter.
Art P. Beattie
Thanks, Tom. In the first quarter of 2012, we've reported earnings of $0.42 per share compared with $0.50 a share in the first quarter of 2011, a decrease of $0.08 a share.
Let's turn now to the major factors that drove our numbers for the first quarter of 2012 compared to the first quarter of 2011. First, the negative factors. Weather effects reduced our earnings by $0.08 a share during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011. Weather was actually $0.06 a share below normal in the first quarter of 2012 compared with $0.02 a share above normal in the first quarter of 2011. Increases in non-fuel O&M expense for our traditional operating companies decreased our earnings by $0.01 a share in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011.
Increased depreciation and amortization, representative of our growing rate base, reduced our earnings by $0.02 a share during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011. The expiration of long-term capacity contracts for Southern Power reduced earnings by $0.01 a share during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011.
Finally, an increase in the number of shares outstanding reduced our earnings by $0.01 a share during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011.
Retail revenue effects in our traditional business were a positive factor, adding a total of $0.05 a share to our earnings for the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011.
In conclusion, we had $0.13 of negative items compared with $0.05 of positive items for a negative change of $0.08 a share.
Moving now to a discussion of our first quarter sales and the economic outlook for the remainder of 2012. Sales growth was driven by the continued recovery of industrial sales, which grew by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011. Industrial sales were 97% of pre-recession levels for the quarter and 99% for the month of March. This growth was led by pipelines, up 8.3%; transportation, up 7.3%; primary metals, up 7%; and chemicals, up 2%.
In our territory, manufacturing job growth outpaced overall job growth in the first quarter of 2012. Unemployment rates in the region have fallen to an average of less than 9% and the level of confidence in our current outlook has been strengthened. The growth in jobs likely contributed to the addition of some 15,000 new residential customers in the first quarter of 2012, a significant increase over the 2,000 customers added during the first quarter of 2011. This growth was the largest such gain in customers since the first quarter of 2009 and was broad-based, meaning that each of our traditional operating companies experienced growth.
Reflecting some of the improvements in customer growth, residential sales growth grew by 0.6% for the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011 on a weather-adjusted basis. Commercial sales declined by 1.3% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the first quarter of 2011, also on a weather-adjusted basis.
Meanwhile, new economic development activity announced in the first quarter of 2012 is expected to bring another 5,000 jobs to our region, which would be a 36% increase over the same period a year ago and another $1 billion of capital investment, a 52% increase over the same period a year ago. Chief among these was the announcement of a new Caterpillar manufacturing facility that will bring 1,400 new jobs to Georgia. More recently, Baxter International announced that it will create more than 1,500 jobs with a new production center outside Atlanta.
Before I discuss our earnings estimate for the second quarter of 2012, I would like to update you on one other financial item. Earlier this month, we announced an increase of 3.7% in our dividend, thereby increasing the annual dividend rate to $1.96 per share. This marks the 11th consecutive year that we have raised our dividend. Over the past decade, fewer than 10% of S&P 500 companies have raised their dividend more than 2% each year, and during that time, Southern Company raised its dividend an average of 3.5% per year.
We also delivered an average annual total shareholder return of more than 11% with a low level of relative risk to the market. We are particularly pleased that our continued focus on providing superior value to our customers has enabled us to provide sustained value to our shareholders.
Now I'd like to move to a discussion of our earnings estimate for the second quarter of 2012.
Our earnings estimate for the second quarter of 2012 is $0.65 per share. As a reminder, during our January earnings call, we shared that annual guidance for the year 2012 was $2.58 to $2.70 per share.
Now I'd like to hand it back over to Tom for his closing remarks.
Thomas A. Fanning
Thanks, Art. In closing, I'd like to take a moment to address an emerging issue that has direct implications for American investors: the tax treatment of dividends and capital gains on investments.
Historically, dividends have played a pivotal role in the financial well-being of American investors. In fact, over the last 80 years, dividends have driven nearly half of the value of the S&P 500. If you look at just the last 30 years, dividends account for nearly 60% of the index's total returns. And over the last 3 years, dividend income has represented nearly 18% of all personal income growth in the United States.
Over time, dividends have provided an important source of investment income for American investors, older investors in particular. And with baby boomers retiring in ever-increasing numbers, it is reasonable to expect that the need for that income will only expand in the coming years.
Our position is clear. First, we believe that the tax treatment of dividends and capital gains should be linked. Second, to encourage capital formation and, therefore, capital expenditures, and as a result, growth in jobs and the incomes of Americans, these tax rates should remain low. This is an issue that we are following closely and we'll continue to do so in the months ahead. As always, we will engage constructively with our elected government representatives, seeking an outcome that preserves the ability of dividends to continue to fuel our country's economic engine and ensure a stable financial future for its citizens.
At this point, we are ready to take your questions. So operator, we'll now take the first question.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Daniel Eggers with Credit Suisse.
Dan Eggers - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division
Just real quick, make sure I understood the 2012 guidance comment. You guys are reaffirming 2012 guidance as you provided on the fourth quarter call and you're comfortable with that number still. I didn't misunderstand that.
Thomas A. Fanning
We only give guidance once a year and we give it in January and then we re-address it at the end of the summer peak season in October.
Dan Eggers - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division
Okay. With your O&M, you had flexibility the last 2 years of good weather to, I guess, for lack of a better word, bank a little bit of O&M. O&M was up in the quarter year on year, even with the volumes down. Are you guys looking for opportunities to help manage O&M over the course of this year to stay in line with that guidance span?
Thomas A. Fanning
Sure. It's what we always do. When I looked at the weather this quarter and I looked at our O&M and I'll let Art comment on this later. But we feel completely confident of our financial plan. No reason to get exercise at all about what we did in the first quarter. Remember, most of our net income comes in the third quarter, and as a result, that's really the time in which to exercise the flexible portion of our operating budgets.
Art P. Beattie
That's exactly right, Tom. And just to give you a little more color on the first quarter, we actually did understand what we expected to spend on the nonfuel O&M side. But on a year-over-year basis, it was a bit more, and a lot of that was related to pension and other employee benefits.
Dan Eggers - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division
Got it. And I guess, Tom, with gas prices low and coal prices showing a little more resilience and the mix you guys are seeing from a dispatch perspective, are you rethinking in the environmental CapEx plans you guys have laid out in the sense of maybe pivoting more away from some of the upgrades on the coal plants just because it's harder to justify them against some of the gas options today?
Thomas A. Fanning
Not really, although it's a very interesting kind of question. As we've looked at the variety of variables that go into our decision-making process with how to comply with HAPs MACT or Cross State or CO2 or anything else, 316B, ethylene standards, you name it, we go through kind of a probability-weighted analysis and try and look at the kind of range of outcomes that could potentially impact our customers. And ultimately, I think what we see is the path that we have chosen or are choosing currently and it'll be final probably by the July call maybe. We think that our plans are driven more by the timing of the regulations rather than necessarily any change in the short-term fuel markets.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Arnold with Deutsche Bank.
Jonathan P. Arnold - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Could I just ask, in your discussion of coal and gas, you talked about working number of different options on contracts and then some forced burn and some deferral. Can you give us a sense of is most of what you're doing deferring? Is it sort of equal amount of all of the different ways of managing the coal contracts? Or do you have any kind of sense of what's the most fruitful area for you?
Art P. Beattie
Well, it's a mixture of all, and if you look at the word we put them in, it's is really driven by the economics. To the degree we can find additional external storage and internal storage of coal, we'll certainly do that first. We'll work with our coal companies to try to find optionality in the contracts or opt out of tons. That would probably be our next choice, and the last choice would be burning the coal in a planned burned gap or planned burned sense.
Thomas A. Fanning
And the sense of it is, right now, the planned burn is exceedingly minor in terms of kind of the overall fuel cost to customers at this point. We think it's like less than 1%. And the other thing that really impacts us here, we started working on the switching strategies very early last year and even before because we could see kind of the clouds on the horizon with respect to HAPs MACT and what that might mean to marginal units. And given that we saw then, at least, a 2015 time frame, we started taking actions not only on our coal contracts, but also on our railroad contracts. And we think we have a very orderly process in place in which to accommodate the optimum fuel results for our customers.
Jonathan P. Arnold - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Okay, and can you frame -- you gave us a sort of benchmark of tonnage in 2007 and tonnage in '12. How does this -- can you just remind us how many tons of coal you burned in '11? How '12 is going to look versus '11?
Thomas A. Fanning
56 million tons.
Jonathan P. Arnold - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
So 56 million goes to 45 million on that year-over-year basis.
Thomas A. Fanning
Yes.
Jonathan P. Arnold - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
And then if I can just ask one other thing. When you give your growth numbers, the weather-adjusted, are you making a leap year adjustment in there as well? Or is that just kind of 1 extra day versus 1 less day last year gross?
Thomas A. Fanning
I'll tell you a funny story. Actually, we didn't adjust it but some years ago, we talked about leap year being an explanation as to an earnings variance. And I made some goofy story about a crazy earnings call. We left that out this time.
Jonathan P. Arnold - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
So we've kind of -- underlying is probably 1% or so less than what you showed.
Thomas A. Fanning
1%, yes.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Paul Ridzon with KeyBanc.
Paul T. Ridzon - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division
Can you just talk about some of the drivers you're seeing in the second quarter relative to the second quarter of '11?
Art P. Beattie
Yes, the second quarter of '11, you might remember we had $0.07 of weather, positive weather last year. So you take that off, and we would've been at $0.64 adjusting for nothing else in that result. So the drivers this year would be some revenue effects from new rates and various of our operating companies across the system and expectations around load growth.
Paul T. Ridzon - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division
Is that $0.07 versus normal?
Art P. Beattie
Yes.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Angie Storozynski with Macquarie Capital.
Angie Storozynski - Macquarie Research
I have a couple of questions. First of all, the load growth. You mentioned a couple of the big industrial projects that are going to bring jobs into your region. I wanted to know about the timeline exactly when those jobs are coming. And I also wonder, I understand that you have some O&M flexibility, but you're going against a pretty significant negative versus your guidance. You're assuming 1.3% year-over-year load growth for now. The weather and then underlying growth are going against you. I mean, could you also tell us basically, should we basically assume that's it's a lower number in general? I mean, is the economy growing at a slower pace than what you have originally assumed?
Thomas A. Fanning
Let me get the last one first. I'm going to hand it over to Art for the economic development stuff. What's interesting about our earnings profile as we were driving through our preparation for the call, one of the things we noticed in our financial plans for this year, especially if you consider the pace of capital investment, so we're spending around $6 billion a year, $18 billion if you add it all up over the 3-year period, and how we're earning CWIP on Vogtle and Kemper County. The seasonality of our earnings is becoming more back-end loaded. So what you see is, what you all should expect is more back-end loading of our earnings performance. So you kind of have a momentum that builds as we have more invested capital throughout the year. So I would kind of caution you with that one. The second one is, we are completely confident that we have the flexibility giving normal variances of weather to do what we need to do in order to achieve our targets. With respect to economic development, let me turn that back over to Art.
Art P. Beattie
Yes, Angie, you had asked about Caterpillar and the dates around that. 2013, that's expected to be complete and started, and the Baxter Labs is going to be a little bit longer in its runway. It's going to be about 2018 before you get to that 1,500 job scenario.
Angie Storozynski - Macquarie Research
Okay. And second question is about -- you mentioned in your prepared remarks about the issues with the rebar and CDC [ph]. Should we expect that it's going to have any impact on the delays, for instance, construction works?
Thomas A. Fanning
So what we said before is, our belief is that all targets are achievable with respect to schedule and cost of customers. The thing I just want to point out is, you will, and what we're trying to, is get people used to the idea that as we proceed through this complex, long-term expensive project, you will hear about lots of things. This one we highlighted this quarter is just another one of what we believe will be many. And in fact, there's already been several license modification applications made. So we're just trying to get everybody used to the idea that these things will occur over time. With respect -- if, in the future, we ever decide to readdress schedule or cost or whatever, we do that in conjunction with our PSC. We have an ongoing relationship, and it's been a very constructive relationship today. I have no reason to believe it wouldn't be in the future.
Angie Storozynski - Macquarie Research
And the last question, what's the heat rate of the new plants, Plant McDonough?
Thomas A. Fanning
The first unit has been operating beautifully. In fact, it's nameplate rating 840. We hit a number like 960 at one point. Now you can't count on that all the time. Remember, it operates more efficiently during cold weather, which is what it did. And its heat rate was around 6,500.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Brian Chin with Citigroup.
Brian Chin - Citigroup Inc, Research Division
I hate to beat a dead horse on this, but with the $0.66 guidance for 2Q, so does that incorporate the weather as we've seen it up to this point in 2Q? Or is that assuming a normalized weather pattern for 2Q ?
Art P. Beattie
It assumes normal weather, Brian. You can try to make some judgments on weather, but you got very little bit of the quarter in there. And my admonitions are all of our people who have input into that is let's assume that we're going to be normal for the quarter.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Mark Barnett with Morningstar.
Mark Barnett - Morningstar Inc., Research Division
A quick question on a couple of just timing issues. With the DOE loans that you expect to start for Vogtle and Kemper this year, could you just give me an update on when you expect those to sort of be finalized or where you are in the process? And then second quick question, when does the quip [ph] start to show up from Ratcliffe? Has that already started in the first quarter?
Thomas A. Fanning
So I'll hit the loan guarantees, and I'll let...
Art P. Beattie
The quip [ph] has begun in Mississippi. Well, are you talking about cash collection of the financing cost? Is that what you're referring to, Mark?
Mark Barnett - Morningstar Inc., Research Division
Yes.
Art P. Beattie
No, that has not begun. There has been a request for that to the Mississippi Public Service Commission, but that has been preempted time-wise by the other issue that they've addressed around the certification order. So the time line is probably going to be midyear or so.
Thomas A. Fanning
It's good we got the order out. That was a good thing to get behind us. With respect to this loan guarantee thing, remember, we got our conditional loan guarantee with the DOE, I don't know, some 2 years ago now, and there were a few ends to tie up before we thought we can make the first draw. We still remain hopeful that we'll have loan guarantees. But as a matter of course, really since Cylindra [ph] and reasonably recently, the DOE has proposed some new conditions that really relate to, we believe, more project finance conditions rather than a corporate credit, which is underlying the obligation to repay the loan guarantee that we have. We're working through those issues and we're very hopeful that we'll be able to reach a successful conclusion. But rest assured, we will always act in our customers' interest. And when they ask us to do something that's not in our customers' interest, we won't go forward. I must say that the value that we are bringing to customers since certification has been rather extraordinary, in my view, and we'll be successful whether we have them or not.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Ali Agha with SunTrust.
Ali Agha - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division
Just to be clear on the remarks you've made, particularly as you've looked at the full year, if I'm hearing you right, obviously, when you initiated the guidance back in beginning of the year, you wanted to assume normal weather and you highlighted how weather has played out. So in terms of your offsets, should we really look at that nonfuel O&M as being the largest tool available for you to work against this unseasonably mild weather? Are there other tools or other offsets that you're seeing that could also be positive incrementally?
Thomas A. Fanning
Ali, we've done this before on other calls, but that's obviously the biggest one and what we've talked about in depth before is the notion that we have a dynamic budgeting system. We essentially have some projects that are approved and funded. We have other projects that are approved and unfunded. So if we get better-than-expected weather, we can do more stuff than we thought we would. And we always have the ability to cut back if things don't work out well. And over time, and I'm talking like over a decade now, this has worked exceedingly well. To wit, look at our reliability numbers that lead the industry on so many different fronts. So we've been able to provide for the care of our assets for the benefit of our customers in a very effective way. Given the periodicity of our earnings, you should expect that the flexibility, the optionality within the nonfuel O&M regime will occur once we see what the kind of summer revenues will bring. So we're not going to exercise a lot of flexibility and optionality in O&M right now. We're going to wait until we see a little more income, and then we'll be able to respond as we need to. And we're completely confident of our ability to continue to do that. Let me also turn to Art here.
Art P. Beattie
Ali, one additional thing to think about is, last 2 years, 2010, 2011, we've had better-than-normal weather. And we've been able to use that to, in some degree, to do some things. "Fix the roof while the sun's out," is Tom's favorite phrase. So we've been able to do some things, and we think gives us a bit more flexibility going into '12 than maybe a normal year would have. So yes, we still have flexibility and time available to utilize it.
Ali Agha - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division
Second question, Tom, coming back to the EPS, is it fair to say that the rules, particularly on math [ph] as they've laid out are now pretty much set and you and others are working around that? Or are you still thinking there will be significant changes to the time line, to the rules? And as far as the CSAPR rule is concerned, obviously you're in front of the coach, but are you assuming it's back to square one there? Just an update on your current thoughts on the EPA rules.
Thomas A. Fanning
Well, so remember, when we think about the rules and our compliance, we've got to consider the whole succession of EPA proposals, some of which are out there, some of which are still in the offing. That's HAPs MACT and it's 316b, and its ethylene, and it's co-combustion byproducts, and it's Cross State, and it's ozone and everything else, CO2. Look, what we do is represent the interest of our customers as effectively as we can. We think we are uniquely qualified to do that given that we are the only company in our industry with a deep proprietary research and development effort, and we think we were particularly effective in the HAPs MACT rule. If you recall, there are 11 issues that we were largely responsible for calling out, one of which related to schedule. The other 10 were of a technical nature. We believe that we got some accommodation on some of the 10 issues. That has given rise to, as Art has talked to you before about, a variance in the capital budget. With respect to HAPs MACT, we kind of estimated, what, up to $2.7 billion over the 3-year period and we have suggested that as a result of the final rule, that we may spend somewhere between $0.5 billion to $1 billion less, depending on the number of bag houses, the extent to which we'll have to expand transmission systems, gas pipelines and a variety of other issues. We still need more flexibility with respect to schedule. And so what you have seen is either us or people of a like mind continuing to effort a change to the HAPs MACT rule, all again, to benefit cost and reliability.
Ali Agha - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division
Okay. Last question, can you remind us, Art, what's the expected equity, incremental equity, that you've planned for 2012?
Art P. Beattie
Yes, we've outlined, I think, last call, $400 million this year, maybe up to $500 million next year and about $1 billion in 2014. If we look at the first quarter, we raised about $115 million. So that $400 million will seem to be right in line with our expectations for the year. Now those amounts could be less if we decide from the MATS perspective that we spend less money in the compliance side of that equation. So just keep that in mind.
Thomas A. Fanning
If MATS is $500 million to $1 billion less, we would spend something like 45% to 50% in that less in equity.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Marc de Croisset with FBR Capital Markets.
Marc de Croisset - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division
How many days of coal burn you have in inventory at the moment? And could you give us color on how that's trended since the beginning of the year?
Thomas A. Fanning
About 60, and it's about what we expected. So what you see typically in terms of coal inventory at Southern would be a trending up going into the peak season and then drawing down through the summer. That's what you would normally expect to see.
Marc de Croisset - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division
And back in September '09, when you were hitting very high levels of inventory, were you slightly above 70 days in that period?
Thomas A. Fanning
It depends on the plant and really the physical dimensions of the coal pile. Really, what you get into there is the physical limitations driving your need to enter into a planned burn program. We are way less on any plan for a planned burn program this year than we have in the past. Particularly, we've taken all the proactive steps that we mentioned earlier.
Marc de Croisset - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division
Terrific. And generally, you've got a lot of fuel flexibility, and that's played itself out over the years. Other than just having gas capacity around, what is it about your system that has made that possible?
Thomas A. Fanning
I have this expression, since I've come on, is honor the past and build for the future. And I would go back to probably the timing which Allen Franklin was running the Traditional Utilities. This is actually before he became CEO. He was COO and ran all the Alabama, Georgia, Gulf and Mississippi. At that time, we decided to balance our portfolio away from coal to gas. And at that time, you may remember, there was this notion that boy, if you could get some CTs, you could make a lot of money all over the place. Interestingly, the way the market evolved during the '90s, we found it to be a much more kind of long-term play. CTs were way more expensive on a unit basis relative to kind of the value, including the option value, that we saw in combined cycles. So what we did, instead of arraying a bunch of combustion turbines all across the system, we tended to buy the more energy-intensive machines and it has worked so well to our benefit today.
Marc de Croisset - FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division
But the CTs are not what's lighting up now. Or am I mistaken?
Thomas A. Fanning
That's my point. We bought a lot more CCs [ph], not CTs, and therefore, we have the excess capacity factor capability that's really worked to our benefit.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Lapides with Goldman Sachs.
Michael J. Lapides - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division
Actually a couple of questions, a little bit unrelated to each other. First, could you comment about what you're seeing in small commercial demand? I mean, a pretty big discrepancy between what you're seeing in residential, what you're seeing in industrial and small commercial. That's first. Second, Southern Power, I would expect for the portion of Southern Power that's uncontracted, 20% or so, you'd actually be benefiting substantially from some of the coal to gas switching that's happening in the Southeast. Surprised just a little bit at kind of year-over-year decline at Southern Power in the first quarter just due to the commodity price. And third, could you give a little bit more insight at Vogtle, the rebar-related issue? I don't know kind of dive in a little further about what's happening, what did the NRC see, what does that really mean?
Art P. Beattie
Michael, this is Art. I'll go after the commercial questions. Commercial always lags growth from the residential side. So to the degree we start seeing growth in residential, you'll begin to see at some point growth in commercial as well. You asked about small retail, and there was an article in the Atlanta paper a week or so ago that talked about the resurgence of small retail. And beginning to see space in retail shopping centers being occupied more so than they had been in the past. So it's beginning to bottom out, I would say. We do have some other trivia about tourism and the coast is way up over where it was in the past, and that a lot of that is on the commercial end of the equation.
Thomas A. Fanning
Let me jump in. This is pretty interesting stuff. So it's a lagging indicator, just as Art said, and in fact, the number that you would point to would be office vacancies are kind of like 20%, where they would normally be 15%. So they are in fact lagging. But a really interesting leading indicator, if you will, in commercial is that sales tax collections are up 5.8% year-over-year. What that tells you is that the velocity of purchases coming through things like Wal-marts and Costcos and a variety of other things are increasing. That's also a function of improved job situation. Personal income is up 4.0% for the Southeast. So you're seeing a decent leading indicator even inside of a negative lagging indicator. This all kind of fits together and we think has a reasonably bullish story for the future.
Michael J. Lapides - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division
Got it, okay, then the other 2 items.
Art P. Beattie
Southern Power? You're right. We do have some more uncovered this year as we've had some contracts roll off in the first quarter of this year. And uncovered margins have increased, but they haven't offset the loss of the capacity revenues or the energy margins produced by those units that were under contract, say, a year ago because volumes had just been down. Load is down across the board and the opportunity to sell those units into the market just hasn't been as great as they were, say, a year ago.
Thomas A. Fanning
I mean, some of the weather effect again. And the last thing was Vogtle, the rebar situation. What did you want on that?
Michael J. Lapides - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division
Just a little bit more detail, what was it that the NRC saw during the inspection? Is it something that's a short-term fix; meaning, contractor comes in. It takes couple of days to fix it. Is it something that could balloon into a larger-term, longer-term item? Just whatever detail you can provide, Tom.
Thomas A. Fanning
So it deals with a very limited part of the rebar structure only in Unit 3 and it deals with the configuration of the rebar as it meets the wall structure. It's that finite detail and it has to deal with does it terminate directly into the wall or does it turn up. There is a solution that we're working through. I don't want to jump ahead of the NRC kind of finally ruling in on this. But all I can say is, it's not going to be anything that, in my opinion, materially impacts any of the schedule or materially impacts any of the cost. And otherwise, it's just this limited part of the rebar in Unit 3. For example, the steam turbine island and the rest of the rebar and everything else continues elsewhere. So it's not like there's a giant work stoppage on the site. It's just with respect to a limited part of the structure. But Mike, the point is, these things will happen, and what we're trying to convey to everybody is these things will happen, you'll hear about them. Certainly, if there's a material impact, we will certainly let people know.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Greg Gordon with ISI Group.
Greg Gordon - ISI Group Inc., Research Division
I'm just wondering, as you guys think about this incredibly dynamic energy market that we're in with how gas has moved versus coal and different types of coal have moved versus each other and you look at the spending you did. I know you've kind of answered a bunch of questions that relate to this. But when you look at your overall capital spending plan over the next several years, I mean, do you still feel like the aggregate of what you will be compelled to spend to provide reliable service to customers still puts you firmly in sort of a capital intensity level that corroborates your earnings growth expectations? I mean, how do we think about how capital is going to move from coal to gas no longer need to spend on environmental. Maybe there's incremental spending on pipeline infrastructure. And how does this all coalesce? Do you guys feel comfortable that you've got the same earnings growth prospects that you had 2 years ago?
Thomas A. Fanning
Well, that's a heck of a question. You know what, here's what I'd say. We're very confident in our 3-year projection which is what we're about. You're asking kind of the broader question, what does it look like. Let me give you an estimate at optionality in 2020. And if natural gas could move from, as low as 34 to its high as 57, with coal being as low as 22 and as high as 45, we see nuclear and hydro and other perhaps renewables and other things being around 21. What you're really asking that I think fills in the gap that we haven't talked about is -- and I think we're pretty well set for new capacity probably through the end of this decade, right? So we've done McDonough, we're doing Plant Ratcliffe at Kemper County, we're doing Vogtle 3 and 4; McDonough; we brought back Miller from wholesale to retail in Alabama. And there may be some other expansion of gas assets, I think, particularly in Georgia that we will see. Now there may be some other things that we start to pick up that we really haven't talked about very much, and the reason we haven't talked about it is because, in fact, they are unknown. For example, it may be we're very happy, frankly, with our experience so far on Vogtle 3 and 4. It may be that we have future nuclear expansion. To the extent we need to have more nuclear units in sight to keep this portfolio balanced, say, we need that by the middle of the next decade. Well, that would presume you start spending money the middle of this decade. The other issue that we will see potentially is more CapEx associated with this litany, this continuing succession of other environmental matters, ash, 316b and you name what else. So it seems like there's always something out there. The only thing that we comment on specifically is our 3-year growth projection, but we see lots of other things going. One last item, and that is, when we think about Southern Power going forward, we always think to ourselves, what a wonderful gas-oriented option that is. It's something like 98% gas-fired in the Southeast. We have great relationships. They've entered into a lot of what we call full requirements customers that not only picks up current loads, but also allows them to build for future growth in the co-ops and munis markets where they specialize. So as the economy picks up, we think there will be greater contributions from Southern Power. For all those reasons, we follow the dividend policy that we do, regular, predictable, sustainable increases in earnings per share permit us to increase dividends per share at a rate well above the rate of inflation, and that's what we've done; it's what we plan on doing.
Greg Gordon - ISI Group Inc., Research Division
So the next 3 years, things haven't -- despite really things have shifted all that much under your feet and beyond 3 years, there's a lot of different levers to pull depending how the economy looks, but they're there.
Thomas A. Fanning
Yes, exactly. The only thing that we've noted has been the HAPs MACT and the potential for $0.5 billion to $1 billion less on that, whatever it was $18.4 billion aggregate number and that was most in '14.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Steven Fleishman from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Steven I. Fleishman - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division
And just a little more detail on some of the coal to gas data. Do you have handy just this quarter of 2012 versus the first quarter of 2011 the changes, what your gas capacity factors were and what your coal capacity factors were?
Thomas A. Fanning
Do you have it versus '11?
Art P. Beattie
I don't have it versus '11.
Thomas A. Fanning
I'll go from memory there. We'll get back to you on that. I'm going to say that a normal kind of capacity factor in the past was in the 30s. And then we saw it start to creep up a little bit last year, and we need to come back and check this, all right? So this is memory. I want to say we got into the 40s and we even bumped into the 50s a couple times last year. Nothing like where we are now. We can get you absolute detail there.
Steven I. Fleishman - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division
Okay. And then just on your -- I know this has been brought up a little bit, I think, but just on your -- kind of when you're looking at your sales plan for the year, weather-normalized, how are you feeling on how that's tracking? And I know it's just 1 quarter.
Thomas A. Fanning
Well, look, absent weather, the economy's better than we thought it was. Remember, I guess we were projecting a GDP growth rate of around 2.6% and normally, electricity follows at about 60% of that growth rate. We've talked about that in the past. We ratcheted that down to about 1.3%, so 50%. So there are some other effects. Other people are estimating GDP growth this year to be 3%, not 2.6%. And if we continue to have 60%, not 50% kind of relationship, you could see an upward bias on the economy this year. But we'll see. Time will tell. The only thing I can say right now is we're off to an awfully good start.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Kit Konolige from Konolige Research.
Kit Konolige - Konolige Research, LLC
So I wouldn't want to leave coal to gas with just 10 questions or so. Could you give us a little sense of -- I'm sure your folks are starting to think about what new contracts might look like with coal suppliers. Can you give us any sense of what you're seeing or thinking or anticipating about trends in coal pricing over the next 2, 3, 4, 5 years?
Thomas A. Fanning
I wouldn't want to comment too much on that, but there are some very interesting dynamics that are going on. As we have suggested in the script, we believe that our flagship units will be robust energy providers well into the future. And so to the extent we make trades in term length of contracts, I think we can have more assurance that those units will be in place. So if you think about kind of a term structure, we'll shorten up obviously on the marginal units and go longer potentially on the flagship units. So you could see that, right? The other thing that we have seen is, obviously, when we think about our flagship units, you have Sheer [ph], Miller and some other PRB potentially blending operations. So more of an orientation towards western coal rather than certainly eastern coal. The other thing that would be a trend, I suspect, would be this -- we've always used kind of imported coal as a check against Central App, particularly and perhaps others. You may see a little bit less of that only because Central App seems to be less of a viable solution going forward. But with respect to price, there's all sorts of things at play that are really unknowable at this time. One of the things we've suggested in that whole HAPs MACT issue is, if the objective of certain parties was to reduce the consumption of coal in the world, our coal is probably going to be exported to people like China and others and it's going to get burned. It just won't be burned here. So if exporting markets do open up, as we think they might, and in fact, I want to say if somebody's got the statistic here, where the exports of coal was as high as it's ever been, and at least in the quarter or for the year or something like that, pretty high exporting of coal. You're going to see prices be a little stronger than otherwise you would think if all you were looking at was domestic demand. So interesting stuff all the way around, hard to predict what the future will hold. That's why it's so important to play to a portfolio as we do.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Jay Dobson with Wunderlich Securities.
James L. Dobson - Wunderlich Securities Inc., Research Division
Just a quick question again on coal to gas. You indicated you might burn 600 Bcf in '12 and we're making a comparison to '07. I wonder what that comparison was for '11.
Art P. Beattie
We actually have that. Somebody's got that. It was -- we actually do have it. Unbelievable. I'm eyeballing a chart, 430.
James L. Dobson - Wunderlich Securities Inc., Research Division
And then to the coal side, just sort of thinking more about the rail component of that, can you talk a little bit about sort of what contract flexibility you have? And how much you're going down the road of sort of renegotiating those contracts? And sort of how flexible the rail will be in with you?
Art P. Beattie
Yes, Jay, this is Art. Most of the rail contracts we have are full requirement contracts that don't require minimum values. So when we look at terms, they're from 1 to 6 years, and we try to match up our coal, coal contracts and our other commodity contracts that we have for our plants. Longer-term contracts are tied obviously, as Tom mentioned earlier, with our flagship units which are going to be burning a lot of Powder River Basin coal over that timeframe. So it depends on the contract and where the coal is needed and what kind of coal they're going to burn.
Thomas A. Fanning
And even when you consider all the fuel switching that's been going on in the United States, we remain an important coal consumer and an important customer of the railroads. And I know I did this, gosh, back when I was CFO when rail delivery issues were of paramount importance. One of the things some other people did in the past was to build these short line railroads, and that's given us a great deal of flexibility in working constructively with our friends in the railroads.
James L. Dobson - Wunderlich Securities Inc., Research Division
Got you. So the full requirements nature of the contract essentially gives you the flexibility I'm talking about. So there really isn't a lot of renegotiation going on.
Thomas A. Fanning
There's an ongoing level of renegotiation. It's nothing that is extraordinary.
James L. Dobson - Wunderlich Securities Inc., Research Division
Okay, perfect. And then onto Vogtle, and I'm speaking specifically, Tom, of the dispute you've mentioned regarding COL and DCD timing. Can you give us sort of a sense of the aggregate dollars that are in dispute?
Thomas A. Fanning
I don't think that's been disclosed, so let me kind of beg off on that. We'll get to it later. You should just know, so here again. There've been lots of commercial claims back and forth and all that already. We don't talk about those as a matter of course, only because they need to get viewed as kind of a basket. If we got into disclosing every commercial claim, whether it was sensible or not, and time frames and everything else, as a practical matter, that's just not a good thing to do. So as we get significant commercial claims. Obviously, if it's material, we'll let you know. It will be disclosed. But otherwise, until things are in the form of a formal claim, probably not good to talk about.
James L. Dobson - Wunderlich Securities Inc., Research Division
I absolutely appreciate how these things work, I guess maybe a better way to ask the question is, how closely are you coordinating with your neighbor in South Carolina, who basically already had these issues and settled them? So they did talk about the numbers and that's why I was trying to get it, I'm not forcing you to give a number. I'm just trying to say they've been through this. Do you guys coordinate with them or talk with them?
Thomas A. Fanning
They have a completely separate regime. In other words, they have a completely separate contract. I can't speak at all to the nature of their contract. All I can speak to is our experience. They obviously settled a claim. We don't have a claim yet. We do know that there's a dispute around schedule. But we don't have a claim. And so therefore, we're not in a position to talk about it, other than to mention that there is one.
James L. Dobson - Wunderlich Securities Inc., Research Division
Okay, fair enough. And then last question on Vogtle back on the rebar issue. This was a issue versus the DCD, so the Shaw Westinghouse didn't install it properly or was there a problem with the DCD?
Thomas A. Fanning
I don't want to get too far into this one either. There will be a time for this when they come out. But it really deals with -- it's, "did the rebar as it was installed near the wall section meet the DCD requirements?" That, I think, is the question.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Paul Patterson with that Glenrock Associates.
Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates LLC
I just wanted to touch base with you, just to make sure I understood the load growth Steve was asking. It sounds like you guys are on a weather-adjusted basis, still sort of sticking with a 1.3% low growth, but then it looks like it might be better because of stronger economic growth. Did I understand that right?
Thomas A. Fanning
You said it perfectly. We're off to a good start.
Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates LLC
Okay, and then the second thing I wanted to ask you was the dividend policy. You mentioned about the potential for dividend tax change and your efforts to communicate investors' concerns. What if the taxes were to be broke to the pre-Bush tax cuts, which is one of the potentials we see here with the less than perhaps cooperative Congress? If that happens, does that change the Southern Company philosophy on dividends and payouts, and what have you?
Thomas A. Fanning
Not in the near term. One of the hallmarks of our dividend policy is one that is regular, predictable and sustainable kind of characterization to it. It is so important in financial signaling theory to be consistent with your approach. We would have to believe that there was a fundamental long-term change in order for us to deviate and we would only do that with extreme care. We really like the track that we're on. In fact, we've got all kinds of interesting statistics. I'm just dying to do one here. Companies that have increased their dividend over 2%, that has a yield over 2% and increased their dividend over 2% over the last decade and have a positive TSR. There's only 2 companies in the S&P 500. We're one of them. We feel like this really inures to the value accretion to our shareholders. With respect to the public policy point here, we've got to stay away from partisan politics and go to what's right for America and we shouldn't be pulling levers to increase our national revenue, if you will, when there are other more effective levers. Recall, that if we tax capital formation, we actually hurt the ability of the economy to grow CapEx and, therefore, grow jobs and, therefore, grow personal income and, therefore, grow taxes. This is exactly the wrong policy to take at this time. One last point: When you consider stocks that have high dividend yields, those are particularly attractive during periods of low economic growth or high relative risk. That is exactly the global economic environment in which we are in. Why in the world we would incent investors to be pushed into riskier capital gains-oriented investments and away from lower-risk, dividend yield-oriented investments is beyond me.
Paul Patterson - Glenrock Associates LLC
Okay, we'll see what happens. Now the other thing I wanted to ask you was just on the market response rates that impacted you guys a couple years ago in sort of a significant way. Is there any impact that we're seeing associated with that sort of unusual gas versus coal or anything like that, that we should be thinking about?
Art P. Beattie
Yes, Paul, they amended those in the last rate case such that they tied the fuel costs associated with the marginal fuel cost of whatever hour that energy was demanded. So the volatility that we saw several years ago around those RTP rates is no longer there. And if you look at it now, it's just not enough to talk about.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Dan Jenkins from State of Wisconsin Investment.
Dan Jenkins
First thing I was wondering was related to the financing plan. It looks like you issued about $1.25 billion of debt in the first quarter. And on your financing plan, you mentioned that the DOE loans could be $2.3 billion to $2.8 billion in 2012. So I guess I'm wondering how should we think about the mix between the DOE as a source and the primary bond market as a source of financing for the rest of the year.
Art P. Beattie
Yes, great question. We've got -- actually, we issued $1.4 billion in the first quarter of new debt. And when we look at the rest of the year, we think we've got about $2.6 billion left to hit our almost $4 billion of target. To the degree that we don't get the loan guarantee, then we'll be going to the markets to raise that capital. But the markets have been in terrific shape to be able to handle that. We'll just have to wait and see where these loan guarantees end up from a benefit to the customer perspective.
Dan Jenkins
Okay. I guess one other criteria that would determine the market's a better way to go or the DOE.
Art P. Beattie
Well, it just depends on the terms and conditions that, with inside the Department of Energy might require us to agree to in order to get the loan guarantee. Certain aspects of that we're just not willing to do.
Thomas A. Fanning
Yes, and Dan, we could fill you up with what that is. I don't think that's productive. We have a negotiation going on. I think we can get through it.
Dan Jenkins
Okay. Then I'm just curious, I might have missed this at the beginning because I didn't get through right away. But on the nuclear construction, what are the main critical path items that we can look for in 2012, so we can, as outsiders, monitor the progress and make sure that we're still on track?
Thomas A. Fanning
Well, I think, I guess there's several issues going on right now. The shield building and components related to the shield building are probably the most important. But, in fact, we've talked about this on prior calls in terms of helping you all, and I think that's our obligation, to help you all understand kind of the major milestones and how we're moving forward right now. We'll provide that to you. Maybe we will do a special call or maybe we'll do something. But we owe you that, I think, in the future. but I would say in the near term, it's getting the concrete poured, getting the shield building in place and moving ahead. Those are probably the, I would guess, the big items related to steel production are the big critical path issues right now.
Dan Jenkins
Okay and then kind of related to the revenue impacts. I know you had $0.05 in the quarter of positive impacts. How were those spread between the operating units and then how much of that was rate increase versus stronger-than-expected demand?
Art P. Beattie
Well, it's a mix of both, but you've got some interim rates going on at Gulf that went into effect, and Alabama had a rate T correction that took place in the fall of last year. That actually started going to benefit earnings in 2012. That's the majority of it. The rest would be adders from a little bit of growth that we're seeing.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Lapides with Goldman Sachs.
Michael J. Lapides - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division
Real quick, Southern Power, 2 items. One, are you still 80% contracted? I think you disclosed at one point, at the end of last year, you talked about having some contract roll-off of the beginning of this year impacting Southern Power. And two, would you ever -- I mean, Southern Power, 8 gigawatts plus now, getting pretty sizable. Do you ever think about whether there are other alternatives for Southern Power? Whether to monetize it somehow, separating it from the rest of the utility business?
Art P. Beattie
Michael, this is Art. The contract coverage through 2016 were about 80% covered. And yes, we've had some contracts go off. But we've also got some new ones signed up under the Georgia IRP decision. They approved about 1,000 megawatts of Southern Power capacity coming on in 2016.
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8:07 AM Southern Company (SO): Q1 EPS of $0.42 misses by $0.05. Revenue of $3.6B (-10% Y/Y) misses by $500M. (PR)
Mild weather to blame
too bad they just paid in March. LOL. But they pretty well stick to the 6th of the month for payout. So although it isn't declared yet, expect that divie on 6 June.
BRIEF-Southern Co raises dividend rate
April 16 (Reuters) - Southern Co :
* Raises dividend rate 11th straight year; annual rate goes to $1.96 per share
* Increasing its annual dividend by 7 cents per share to a rate of $1.96 per
share
* Sets regular quarterly dividend of $0.49 per share
* Says dividend increase of 1.75 cents per share on a quarterly basis
((Bangalore Equities Newsroom; +91 80 4135 5800; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780))
Thomson Reuters
Southern Company Subsidiary Receives Historic License Approval for New Vogtle Units, Full Construction Set to Begin
ATLANTA, Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Construction is set to begin on the nation's first two new nuclear units in 30 years at Southern Company (NYSE: SO) subsidiary Georgia Power's Plant Vogtle, near Waynesboro, Ga.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) voted today to approve the issuance of the Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) for Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4, the first such license ever approved for a U.S. nuclear plant. Receipt of the COL signifies that full construction can begin.
"This is a monumental accomplishment for Southern Company, Georgia Power, our partners and the nuclear industry," said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning. "We are committed to bringing these units online to deliver clean, safe and reliable energy to our customers. The project is on track, and our targets related to cost and schedule are achievable."
The company expects to deliver to customers more than $1 billion in benefits from the Department of Energy loan guarantees, production tax credits and recovering financing costs during construction.
Georgia Power expects Unit 3 to begin operating in 2016 and Unit 4 in 2017.
"The governor and lieutenant governor of Georgia, the Public Service Commission and members of Georgia's General Assembly had the vision and foresight to make bold decisions to help ensure a secure energy and economic future for the state," said Georgia Power President and CEO Paul Bowers. "The new Vogtle units will provide our customers and the communities we serve with clean, affordable, reliable energy.
"Our communities and our country will benefit from this more than $14 billion investment, representing 4,000 to 5,000 jobs on site during peak construction, and in the process creating over 25,000 direct and indirect jobs by this project alone," Bowers added.
The approval of the Vogtle COL was a joint effort with NuStart Energy Development, a partnership of 10 power companies created in 2004 to obtain a COL using the new streamlined licensing process and complete the design engineering for the selected reactor technologies. In 2009, NuStart named Vogtle the reference plant for the Westinghouse AP1000® technology.
"The efforts of NuStart and the Department of Energy were vital to achieving this license," Fanning said. "In addition, the NRC's technical staff conducted a thorough evaluation and determined the Vogtle design is safe and meets all regulatory requirements."
Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is overseeing construction and will operate the two new 1,100-megawatt AP1000 units for Georgia Power and co-owners Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities. Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the new units, with a certified cost of $6.1 billion.
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plans that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements regarding the completion of Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4, estimated construction and other expenditures related to Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4, job creation, receipt and impact of U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees, production tax credits, and recovery of financing costs. Southern Company cautions that there are certain factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Southern Company; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The following factors, in addition to those discussed in Southern Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, and subsequent securities filings, could cause actual results to differ materially from management expectations as suggested by such forward-looking information: regulatory approvals and actions related to Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4, including Georgia Public Service Commission and NRC approvals and potential U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees; state and federal rate regulations and the impact of future rate cases and regulations; changes in business conditions; the impact of recent and future federal and state regulatory changes, as well as changes in application of existing laws and regulations; current and future litigation, regulatory investigations, proceedings or inquiries; ability to control costs and avoid cost overruns during the development and construction of Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4; catastrophic events such as fires, earthquakes, explosions, floods, hurricanes, droughts, pandemic health events such as influenzas, or other similar occurrences; the direct or indirect effect on Southern Company's business resulting from terrorist incidents and the threat of terrorist incidents, including cyber intrusion; the ability of counterparties to make payments as and when due and to perform as required; interest rate fluctuations and financial market conditions and the results of financing efforts, including Southern Company's credit ratings; and the impacts of any potential U.S. credit rating downgrade or other sovereign financial issues, including impacts on interest rates, access to capital markets, impacts on currency exchange rates, counterparty performance, and the economy in general, as well as potential impacts on the availability or benefits of proposed U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees. Southern Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information.
SOURCE Southern Company
3:59 PM The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves Southern Co.'s (SO) request to build two nuclear reactors at its Vogtle site in Georgia. The vote clears the way for officials to issue an operating license for the reactors, which could begin operating as soon as 2016 and 2017. The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island. SEEKING ALPHA
Southern Co (SO) (45.12 +0.22)
Jan 25 (Reuters) - Southern Co : * Reports 2011 fourth quarter and full-year earnings * Q4 earnings per share $0.30 * Q4 revenue fell 2 percent to $3.7 billion * Q4 earnings per share view $0.30 -- Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S * Earnings were negatively affected by weather that was closer to normal in 2011 than it had been in 2010 * Kilowatt-hour sales to retail customers in Southern company's four-state service area decreased 2.7 percent in 2011 * Total energy sales to customers in southeast,decreased 3.4 percent in 2011 compared with 2010 ((Bangalore Equities Newsroom; +91 80 4135 5800; within (Thomson Reuters 07:34 AM ET 01/25/2012)
What's a measley $.7 Billion between friends?
7:42 AM Southern Company (SO): Q4 EPS of $0.30 in-line. Revenue of $3.7B (-2% Y/Y) misses by $0.3B.
Recent articles on SO:
Earnings Preview: Southern Company Reports Q4 Results Wednesday by Robert Weinstein
Southern Company: One Of The Best Long-Term Investments You Will Find by John Mylant
Southern Company's Prospects Are Electric by Rising Dividend Investing
SEEKING ALPHA
Beautiful. I didn't pick it up til this past Sept, which was $40 at the time.
Positive Growth...My Initial Entry point was $30.00 PPS and has been an up-hill climb ever since.Divi's the icing on this cake.
WELCOME BACK, GEMSTONE! Yes, SO was my pick over all it's subsidiaries, it's 4.6% divie is decent for a utility. They have one nuclear facility that seems to keep giving them trouble, and hopefully, the new EPA mandates on coal plants won't give them extreme grief, I think they've been looking ahead at that for some time.
johnson funny seeing you here I owned this company for several years now and it to is Solid as a Rock
10:15 AM The EPA yesterday released a detailed listing of facilities that emitted the most greenhouse gases in 2010, with three coal-fired power plants owned by Southern Co. (SO) topping the list and a Duke Energy (DUK) plant placing fifth. The release marked the first time the U.S. government made such detailed information available to the public.
Recent articles on SO:
Southern Company's Prospects Are Electric by Rising Dividend Investing
Southern's CEO Discusses Q3 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Southern Company: Slightly Overpriced But A Great Long-Term Pick by Efsinvestment
SEEKING ALPHA
US NRC to certify new Westinghouse AP1000 reactor
* Three of five NRC commissioners approve of AP1000
* NRC to issue licenses to build new reactors soon
* AP1000 is most popular new U.S. reactor design
By Scott DiSavino and Eileen O'Grady
Dec 20 (Reuters) - U.S. nuclear regulators expect to
certify the latest version of Westinghouse Electric's AP1000
reactor design on Thursday, allowing for construction of the
first new reactors in the United States since the Three Mile
Island accident in 1979.
So far, three of the five commissioners at the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC), including the Chairman Gregory
Jaczko, have publicly voted in favor of the AP1000
certification.
On Thursday, the commissioners are expected to publicly
affirm their previously made votes in favor of the AP1000.
"You only need a majority. We're excited to finally get
design certification. It means the nuclear renaissance is moving
forward in the United States," Westinghouse spokesman Scott Shaw
told Reuters.
Next up for the commission is to decide on U.S. power
companies Southern Co's and Scana Corp's
applications to build new AP1000s in the U.S. Southeast.
Both companies have already started limited construction on
the units , which will be the first new reactors built in the
United States in over 30 years.
"Affirmation of the design certification enables the NRC to
issue the (combined construction and operating license or COL).
We remain confident that the COL will be issued shortly after
affirmation of the certification," Southern spokesman Steve
Higginbottom told Reuters.
Environmental groups meanwhile continue to question the
safety of the AP1000 design and nuclear power in general,
especially since the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in
Japan following a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.
But the NRC has for the most part kept fairly close to its
schedule to approve the latest version of the AP1000 design as a
safer alternative to existing plants.
"The process has probably taken a little longer than we
hoped but that is okay. The NRC has to make sure everything
works. We are still on schedule for Southern to get a COL in
time to get the first reactor built by 2016," Westinghouse's
Shaw said.
Southern and partners are spending about $14 billion to
build two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia
with the first new unit expected to enter service in 2016 and
the second in 2017. Scana and partners are investing about $9.8 billion to build two reactors at the Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina with the new units expected to enter service in 2016 and 2019.
Southern and Scana expect the NRC to approve of licenses for their proposed reactors within a month or two of certifying the AP1000 design. Separately, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a federal power agency, is completing the construction of a reactor at the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee and another at the Bellefonte plant in Alabama. TVA started building the units before the Three Mile Island accident but stopped work in the 1980s.
AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR
Among U.S. utilities, the 1,154-megawatt AP1000 design is
the most popular of the proposed new reactor designs the NRC is
evaluating.
Of the 37 proposals for new reactors in the United States,
16 are AP1000s, according to the NRC website.
Industry experts however said only a handful of new reactors
will actually be built in the United States over the next decade
with many stalled in part due to cheaper power alternatives
using natural gas and the inability of U.S. politicians to agree
on rules to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas
emissions responsible for global warming.
The AP1000 is a generation III+ design with passive safety
features that Westinghouse, which is majority owned by Japanese
multinational Toshiba Corp , said would have withstood
the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima-Daiichi
nuclear plant in Japan.
The passive safety features of the AP1000 can achieve and
maintain safe shutdown without operator action, AC power or
pumps, Westinghouse said.
The loss of power at Fukushima prevented operators from
pumping the cooling water needed to remove the heat produced by
the uranium fuel in the plant's reactors and spent fuel pools,
which allowed some of that fuel to overheat and meltdown,
releasing radiation.
The NRC certified an earlier version of the AP1000 in 2006.
Westinghouse submitted an amendment request to the NRC on its
own in 2007 and later revised that request to comply with the
agency's aircraft impact rule issued in 2009, the NRC said.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States
using aircraft, the NRC required nuclear operators to show that
the reactor's shield building could withstand severe
earthquakes, hurricanes and airplane collisions.
NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE?
The global nuclear industry has experienced a so-called
renaissance over the last decade as developing nations boost
power supplies to increase their citizens' living standards.
More than 60 new reactors are under construction around the
world, according to the World Nuclear Association.
In China, Westinghouse is building four reactors based on an
earlier version of the AP1000 with the first expected to enter
service in 2013, Westinghouse's Shaw said, but there are no
AP1000s currently operating.
Construction of new reactors in many developed nations
however has stalled and some countries like Germany have even
sped up plans to phase out existing nuclear fleets following the
Fukushima disaster in Japan earlier this year.
The United States still has the most reactors of anywhere in
the world with 104 operating units that produce about 20 percent
of the country's energy.
((scott.disavino@thomsonreuters.com)(+1 646 223-6072)(Reuters
Messaging: scott.disavino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: UTILITIES WESTINGHOUSE/AP1000
For Reuters Top News page click the following link:
Thomson Reuters
Southern Co (SO) (44.56 +0.01)
Dec 19 (Reuters) - Pattern Energy Group's Southern Cross transmission line, designed to move abundant West Texas wind power beyond the state's border, has obtained key federal regulatory approval to move forward, the company said on Monday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said the $1 billion project will not threaten the regulatory status for transmission providers within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) which are currently exempt from direct FERC jurisdiction. It was unlikely the project would have survived had FERC ruled otherwise, according to market sources. FERC's clarification of ERCOT's continued status was critical for the project, Pattern said. "This is great for marketing the project and moving ahead with shippers," said Pattern project manager Chris Shugart. The Southern Cross line, a 400-mile, high-voltage, direct-current line stretching from north Texas to northeastern Mississippi, is designed to allow up to 3,000 megawatts of electricity to flow between the Texas grid and (Thomson Reuters 05:18 PM ET 12/19/2011)
Southern Co's 883-megawatt Unit 2 at the Hatch nuclear power plant in Georgia was shut by early Thursday from 92 percent power early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. Meanwhile, Hatch 1 was operating at full power.
PLANT BACKGROUND/TIMELINE STATE: Georgia COUNTY: Appling TOWN: Baxley OPERATOR: Southern Co's Southern Nuclear OWNER(S): -Southern Co's Georgia Power (50.1 pct) -Oglethorpe Power Corp (30 pct) -Municipal Elec. Authority of Georgia (17.7 pct) -City of Dalton (2.2 percent) CAPACITY: 1,759 MW UNIT(S): 1 - 876 MW General Electric boiling water reactor 2 - 883 MW General Electric boiling water reactor FUEL: Nuclear DISPATCH: Baseload COST: $934 million TIMELINE: 1975 -Unit (Thomson Reuters 07:08 AM ET 12/15/2011)
Southern Co shut its 883-megawatt Unit 2 at the Hatch nuclear power plant in Georgia by early Thursday for a short-term maintenance outage. "The unit will be performing some routine maintenance as well as replacing a safety relieve valve." company spokeswoman Alyson Fuqua said. She did not, however, give a return date on the unit, for competitive reasons. The unit was operating at 92 percent power early Wednesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report. Meanwhile, Hatch 1 was operating at full power.
PLANT BACKGROUND/TIMELINE STATE: Georgia COUNTY: Appling TOWN: Baxley OPERATOR: Southern Co's Southern Nuclear OWNER(S): -Southern Co's Georgia Power (50.1 pct) -Oglethorpe Power Corp (30 pct) -Municipal Elec. Authority of Georgia (17.7 pct) -City of Dalton (2.2 percent) CAPACITY: 1,759 MW (Thomson Reuters 01:06 PM ET 12/15/2011)
The head of the U.S. nuclear safety regulator acknowledged on Thursday that he needs to work on repairing damaged trust at his agency, but he stopped short of apologizing for behavior his colleagues have complained about. It was the second congressional hearing in two days to focus on accusations from colleagues about the temper and tactics of Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jaczko is the victim of attempted "character assassination," said Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environment committee, who said she thinks the complaints are motivated by a desire to slow sweeping regulatory changes for the nation's 104 aging nuclear plants. Boxer, a Democrat, credited Jaczko for championing quick implementation of those changes, prompted by a review of the nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant in March. The new rules could cost industry millions of dollars. On Wednesday, a Democratic (Thomson Reuters 05:35 PM ET 12/15/2011)
Southern Co (SO) (44.14 -0.18)
Dec 14 (Reuters) - Responding to a bitter power struggle at the U.S. nuclear safety regulator, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are drawing up legislation that would rein in the authority of the agency's chairman. As the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission faces two days of hearings on Capitol Hill probing why relationships have deteriorated, Lee Terry, a Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is drafting a bill that would "clarify" the powers of the agency's chairman, a Republican aide said. What prompted the bill was the unprecedented move by the agency's four commissioners - two Democrats and two Republicans - to raise "grave concerns" about the way Chairman Gregory Jaczko is doing the job. William Magwood, Kristine Svinicki, William Ostendorff and George Apostolakis said Jaczko has bullied senior staff, withheld information, and undermined the commission's ability to function. (Thomson Reuters 08:00 AM ET 12/14/2011)
Southern Co (SO) (44.14 -0.18)
Dec 14 (Reuters) - A Democratic commissioner accused the head of the U.S. nuclear regulator of mistreating staff, including verbally abusing female workers, in an explosive congressional hearing on allegations of toxic relations within the agency. Gregory Jaczko, the embattled chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, denied the charges - which he said came as a surprise - and said he has no plan to resign. The five-member commission has long been embroiled in a struggle over roles and policy, but Wednesday's hearing at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was the first time commissioners had publicly spoken about their concerns about the management style of Jaczko. The controversy coincides with the commission working on a sweeping set of regulatory changes recommended following the March nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant. The changes could cost millions of dollars for operators of the 104 aging (Thomson Reuters 04:24 PM ET 12/14/2011)
Southern Co (SO) (44.72 +0.44)
Dec 6 (Reuters) - Companies that operate nuclear power plants may face longer waits to get approval to extend their licenses or produce more power as the U.S. nuclear safety regulator grapples with a heavy workload, the agency's chairman said on Tuesday. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working on a series of sweeping changes to its rules for power plants after an earthquake and tsunami swamped the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in March, causing the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. "There's limited resources, and there's going to be decisions that are going to have to be made," Gregory Jaczko, NRC chairman, told reporters on Tuesday. "Those resources may need to be shared now with the work that's going on now with Fukushima," Jaczko said. Post-Fukushima upgrades and regulatory changes are expected to add millions in new costs for existing and new reactors owned by companies such as Exelon , Entergy Corp and merger (Thomson Reuters 04:18 PM ET 12/06/2011 More...)
SO one of my fav's...been in since the $30.00's
Nov 17 (Reuters) - Southern Co.'s Mississippi Power utility made three rate filings with Mississippi state regulators that overall will boost 2012 power bills by 11.35 percent in part to pay for a new power plant. In one filing, the utility sought an 11.66 percent increase to recover financing costs during construction of its $2.4 billion Kemper coal-fired power plant. "The Kemper IGCC Project is on schedule and progressing well. When completed, this plant will generate electricity for customers at a significantly lower cost than any of the alternatives," Vice President of Generation Development Tommy Anderson said in a release. "The recovery of financing costs during construction will save customers hundreds of millions of dollars in additional financing charges over the life of the plant," Anderson said. Kemper is an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant due to enter service in 2014.. (Thomson Reuters 02:42 PM ET 11/17/2011
Southern Co (SO) (43.04 -0.09)
Nov 17 (Reuters) - The top U.S. environmental regulator will propose early next year twice-delayed rules on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, she told the energyNOW television show. "I can't tell you what the regulations say right now, but what we are planning to do is release them early next calendar year," Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, told the program in a segment seen by Reuters that is to be broadcast over the weekend. The EPA in June delayed the proposed rules on power plants, which are the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, saying it needed more time after talking with businesses, states and green groups. It delayed them again in September. Republicans in the House of Representatives have waged a war on EPA clean-air regulations, saying such rules will kill jobs and add costs to businesses suffering in a battered economy. In September, President Barack Obama directed the EPA to delay a major rule on smog-forming pollutants until 2013. (Thomson Reuters 04:00 PM ET 11/17/2011
nice DD, ECOMIKE, thank you. The present PPS has pulled the divie percent down to 4.4%, but still a very good stock to hold.
Fortune magazine this week had 2 articles on SO.
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/11/09/n_southco_fanning3.fortune/
Southern Company Receives First Fuel Load Delivery at Biomass Plant
Southern (NYSE:SO)
Today : Tuesday 1 November 2011
Southern Company (NYSE: SO) received its first fuel load delivery Nov. 1 at the Nacogdoches Generating Facility owned by its subsidiary Southern Power in eastern Texas. The plant is the largest biomass facility in the United States. This facility fulfills a 20-year contract to provide electric capacity to Austin Energy.
Southern Company is a leader in developing and deploying smarter and more efficient energy technologies. The Nacogdoches Generating Facility is part of Southern Company's overall strategy to have a diverse energy portfolio that includes renewables, natural gas, 21st century coal, new nuclear and energy efficiency.
Prime Acres Management Inc. won the right to deliver the first fuel load after being the highest bidder in an online supplier charity auction that took place from Oct. 3 – 17. The winning bid of $10,500, will be matched by Southern Company and donated to the Nacogdoches Technical Training Center. The center will provide job skills to non-college bound students, serve as a conduit for state workforce training incentive programs and provide targeted adult education training classes for citizens to improve their education and skills.
"Southern Power provides customers the affordable, reliable energy they need through modernization and innovation," said Oscar C. Harper, president and CEO of Southern Power. "The Nacogdoches Generating Facility will provide electric service to the citizens of Austin in a cost-effective, reliable and environmentally responsible manner."
In October 2009, Southern Company purchased the project from American Renewables. The project has been under construction since November 2009 and will be operational in mid 2012. Southern Company expects to employ approximately 38 full-time employees once the plant is constructed and, at peak construction, expects approximately 1,000 workers onsite. Once the facility is fully operational, it will produce 100 megawatts of electricity and use 1.1 million tons of wood waste per year. The vast majority of the wood will come from within a 75-mile radius of the plant.
Southern Power is among the largest wholesale energy providers in the Southeast, meeting the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities. The company owns and operates more than 7,500 megawatts of power generation capability, with facilities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and New Mexico and is constructing an additional 820 megawatts of generation in North Carolina and Texas.
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
Plant Hatch Unit 2 Begins Planned Maintenance Outage
Southern (NYSE:SO)
Today : Monday 24 October 2011
Plant operators safely took Plant Hatch Unit 2 offline around midnight Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 for a scheduled maintenance outage. The primary focus of the maintenance outage is to replace a relief valve inside the drywall of containment.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080801/SOCOLOGO)
Plant Hatch Unit 1 will continue to safely generate electricity while Unit 2 is offline.
About Southern Nuclear:
Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company, operates the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant near Baxley, Ga., the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan, Ala. and the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Ga. www.southerncompany.com/southernnuclear
About Southern Company:
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
SOURCE Southern Company
Southern Company Supports Operation Migration to Conserve Endangered Whooping Crane
Southern (NYSE:SO)
Today : Thursday 20 October 2011
A group of 10 young whooping cranes has taken to the air on an annual migration to help conserve the species, and Southern Company is standing behind them.
As part of its commitment to environmental stewardship, Southern Company, in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, has sponsored Operation Migration through the Power of Flight conservation program since 2008.
Operation Migration's mission is to promote the conservation of migratory species, including the endangered whooping crane. The non-profit organization is working to increase the number of whooping cranes it rears and leads south with the goal of helping the population reach a self-sustaining level.
Its annual migration, now in its 11th year, takes young cranes on a 1,285-mile journey from Wisconsin to Florida. The birds are trained, with the help of costumed personnel and puppets, to follow an ultralight aircraft on the migratory route that prepares them to return on their own the following spring.
This year's migration launched on Oct. 9, and is expected to last from 50 to 90 days, depending on the weather. The route includes three states served by Southern Company electric utility subsidiaries: Alabama (Alabama Power), Georgia (Georgia Power) and Florida (Gulf Power). Both longtime "craniacs" and the growing legion of newer fans can see the birds at flyover points scheduled along the way.
"The whooping crane migration is an amazing experience that allows us to witness in real time an endangered species being saved," said Chris Hobson, Southern Company chief environmental officer. "We are excited to join with Operation Migration to take conservation to such a dramatic level."
"Although this will be our 11th ultralight-led migration with whooping cranes, each year inevitably presents new challenges," said Joe Duff, senior pilot and CEO of Operation Migration. "It took the combined efforts of many people, including sponsors like Southern Company, to bring this conservation project to this stage. We have done everything we can to prepare the young cranes, now all we need are favorable winds and a little luck."
"With each successful Operation Migration flight, we're helping a generation of whooping cranes learn a behavior that once came naturally," said NFWF Executive Director and CEO Jeff Trandahl. "Through its investments in the Power of Flight program, Southern Company supports a unique and effective approach to restoring our native crane population."
Southern Company and NFWF are presenting sponsors of Operation Migration's daily EarlyBird e-bulletin. To subscribe, send your name and e-mail address to EarlyBird and include "Operation Migration" in the subject field. Additional updates, including flyover location details, are available at the Operation Migration website.
Power of Flight, which funds projects to conserve birds characteristic of the southern United States, is one of Southern Company's three main environmental stewardship programs in conjunction with NFWF and other partners. Southern Company also works to restore the South's longleaf pine ecosystem through Longleaf Legacy and to support community watershed conservation through Five Star Restoration.
Combined, these programs have restored or enhanced more than 500,000 acres of forest and habitat in the Southeast and exposed hundreds of thousands of people to conservation messages and education.
Since 2001, Operation Migration has played a lead role in the reintroduction of endangered whooping cranes into eastern North America. During the 1940s, only 15 birds survived in the world, although the species was not declared endangered until 1971. Because of conservation efforts, nearly 500 whooping cranes survive today in wild populations and in captive breeding centers.
Operation Migration USA Inc. is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the conservation of migratory species through innovative research, education and partnerships. Operation Migration is a founding partner of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, the coalition of non-profit organizations and government agencies behind the project to safeguard the endangered whooping crane from extinction.
A nonprofit established by Congress in 1984, The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation sustains, restores and enhances the nation's fish, wildlife, plants and habitats. Through leadership conservation investments with public and private partners, NFWF is dedicated to achieving maximum conservation impact. Since its establishment, the Foundation has awarded more than 11,000 grants to more than 3,800 organizations in the United States and abroad and leveraged more than $529 million in federal funds into over $1.8 billion for conservation.
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company is the parent firm of electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications companies. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
SOURCE Southern Company
Southern Nuclear Names New Site Vice President for Plant Farley
Southern (NYSE:SO)
Intraday Stock Chart
Today : Tuesday 20 September 2011
Southern Nuclear Chairman, President and CEO Stephen Kuczynski announced today that Thomas (Tom) A. Lynch has been elected site vice president of the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan, Ala., effective Sept. 28. Lynch will be senior executive at the site responsible for Plant Farley's performance.
"Tom's leadership and experience in operating successful nuclear facilities is exactly what we will need to ensure Southern Nuclear's overall fleet success," said Kuczynski. "With a proven track record of setting and reinforcing high operational standards, he clearly has the ability to lead the Farley team to achieve industry-leading performance."
Lynch brings more than 26 years of nuclear industry experience to his position. He comes to Southern Nuclear from Constellation Energy's Nine Mile Point Plant where he served as the plant's general manager since 2009. Before joining Constellation, he held leadership positions at Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station and at Entergy's River Bend Nuclear Station.
Lynch earned a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering from the University of New Mexico and a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Oklahoma. In 1992, he received his Senior Reactor Operator (SRO) License for Nile Mile Point and earned his second SRO License at River Bend in 1999. Lynch is a native of Farmington, N.M.
About Southern Nuclear:
Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company, operates the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant near Baxley, Ga., the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan, Ala. and the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Ga.
About Southern Company:
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company is the parent firm of electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications companies. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
SOURCE Southern Company
I was expecting that, with the heat wave increasing demand this summer 20%
SO posted higher than expected qtrly earnings according to REUTERS
good for you- I'm buying today as the market slips AGAIN-jobs report/friday selloff/sept selloff/ europe market down.....ughh
Nice! I still have the shares I bought in 2009 near the bottom
Southern Company raises dividend rate 10th straight year; annual rate goes to $1.89 per share
April 18, 2011
ATLANTA - Southern Company said today it is increasing its annual dividend rate by 7 cents per share to $1.89 per share.
The 3.9 percent increase marks the 10th straight year that Southern Company has raised the dividend on its common stock.
Southern Company also announced today a regular quarterly dividend - including an increase of 1.75 cents per share on a quarterly basis - of 47.25 cents per share, payable June 6, 2011, to shareholders of record as of May 2, 2011. This marks 254 consecutive quarters - dating back to 1948 - that Southern Company will have paid a dividend to its shareholders.
"Southern Company's commitment to customer satisfaction and constructive regulatory relationships has fueled our long history of regular, predictable and sustainable earnings growth," said Thomas A. Fanning, chairman, president and CEO. "Our business should continue to benefit from that environment, particularly in terms of our ability to access the capital we need."
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
Southern Company announces quarterly dividend of $.4725
ATLANTA -- Southern Company today announced a regular quarterly dividend of 47.25 cents per share on the company's common stock, payable September 6, 2011, to shareholders of record August 1, 2011. This marks 255 consecutive quarters -- dating back to 1948 -- that Southern Company will have paid a dividend to its shareholders.
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company is the parent firm of electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications companies. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
Media Contact:
Southern Company Media Relations
404-506-5333 or 1-866-506-5333
media@southerncompany.com
www.southerncompany.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Glen Kundert
404-506-5135
gakunder@southernco.com
Southern Company reports second quarter earnings
ATLANTA - Southern Company (NYSE: SO) today reported second quarter earnings of $603.3 million, or 71 cents a share,
compared with $510.2 million, or 62 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.
For the six months ended June 30, Southern Company's earnings were $1.03 billion, or $1.20 a share, compared with $1.00
billion, or $1.22 a share, for the same period a year ago.
Revenues for the second quarter were $4.52 billion, compared with $4.21 billion for the same period a year ago, a 7.5 percent
increase. For the first six months of the year, revenues were $8.53 billion, compared with $8.36 billion for the same period last
year, a 2.0 percent increase.
Earnings were positively influenced by regulatory actions at Georgia Power that became effective Jan. 1, 2011, including cash
recovery of financing costs related to Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 that is expected to save Georgia Power customers
approximately $300 million. Earnings were further positively influenced by continued strength in manufacturing exports, as well
as improved results at the company's Southern Power subsidiary.
Earnings were negatively affected by higher depreciation and amortization - including reduced amortization of the cost of
removal obligations at Georgia Power that helped offset the need for a rate request in 2009 - as well as an increase in the
number of Southern Company outstanding shares.
"The industrial sector continues to lead the economic recovery in the Southeast," said Southern Company Chairman, President
and CEO Thomas A. Fanning. "We believe our region is well positioned for future expansion, and we are already seeing new
business development in several parts of our service territory. Southern Company will continue to support this expansion by
focusing on our core business strategy of exceptional customer satisfaction, industry-leading reliability and prices below the
national average."
Kilowatt-hour sales to retail customers in Southern Company's four-state service area increased 1.6 percent in the second
quarter of 2011 compared with the second quarter of 2010. Residential electricity sales increased 2.2 percent, while
commercial sales decreased 0.4 percent and industrial sales increased 3.3 percent.
Total energy sales to Southern Company's customers in the Southeast, including wholesale sales, increased 1.2 percent in the
second quarter of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.
Southern Company's financial analyst call will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern time today, during which Fanning and Chief Financial
Officer Art P. Beattie will discuss earnings and provide a general business update. Investors, media and the public may listen to
a live webcast of the call and view associated slides at http://investor.southerncompany.com/events.cfm. A replay of the
webcast only will be available at the site for 12 months.
Southern Company has also posted on its website detailed financial information on its second quarter performance. These
materials are available at www.southerncompany.com.
With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:
SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company is the
parent firm of electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless
communications companies. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail
electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas
Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer
satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plan
Vogtle Project Update Filed With Georgia PSC
Southern (NYSE:SO)
Intraday Stock Chart
Today : Thursday 1 September 2011
Southern Company (NYSE: SO) subsidiary Georgia Power today announced in a filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission that Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 are moving forward towards issuance of the combined construction and operating license (COL) around the end of 2011, with unit 3 becoming operational in 2016 and unit 4 in 2017.
The company filed the fifth semi-annual Vogtle construction monitoring report to request the commission verify and approve costs for the period Jan. 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011.
"We support this transparent review process, which is one of the commission's key tools to ensuring our customers receive a viable, economic source of energy," said Georgia Power President and CEO Paul Bowers. "We are being accountable to our customers. This project is on track, and the targets are achievable."
Among the highlights in the report:
•The commission has made it possible for the company to be in a position to deliver to customers nearly $1 billion in benefits from the DOE loan guarantees, production tax credits and the early recovery of financing costs in rate base.
•Completion of the two new units remains significantly less expensive than any of the available alternatives.
•The company continues to manage the project well.
In March 2009, the commission approved Georgia Power's request to certify the construction of Vogtle units 3 and 4. Under the agreement, the company must file semi-annual monitoring and monthly status reports with the commission. The semi-annual monitoring report includes any proposed revisions to the cost estimate, construction schedule, or project configuration, as well as a report on actual costs incurred during the period covered by the report and an updated comparison of the economics of the certified project.
Public hearings will be held at the commission later this year, with a vote to approve the costs expected in early 2012. Expenses included in the four previous construction monitoring reports have been verified and approved by the commission.
Southern Company subsidiary Southern Nuclear is overseeing construction and will operate the two new 1,100-megawatt AP1000 units for Georgia Power and co-owners Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities. Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the new units.
Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation's largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility with rates below the national average. Georgia Power serves 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties.
www.georgiapower.com
SOURCE Georgia Power
Nice news, they raised the dividend, again!
75% increase in profits was in the news, another new 52 week high, we are going higher here folks! Analysts missed the boat on this one!
Am I talking to myself? LOL.
Somebody is loving us now! We made a 52 week high!!!!
These big board stocks never get any love on ihub. you only see people talking on penny stocks.
SO, Southern Company, a major electric utility company is moving into the alternative energy business it seems.
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=40297716&symbol=SO
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Southern Company consists of four subsidiary electric utilities - Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power .
They also sell and transmit power in the wholesale market for about 75 other providers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Carolinas, through another one of their subsidiaries called Southern Power.
Other major subsidiaries and business units include Southern Nuclear, with three nuclear generating plants: the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant near Baxley, Ga., the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan, Ala. and the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Ga; SouthernLINC Wireless, a communications network with a 127,000 square-mile coverage area in the Southeast; and Southern Telecom, a fiber optic wholesaler in the Southeast.
Southern Company is completing a Biomass Plant near Austin, Texas that is expected to begin serving customers in summer of 2012.
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