America doesn’t need to choose between winning the AI race and keeping energy affordable for hardworking families. At Southern Company, we’re proving both are possible by powering America’s most advanced industries, achieving energy dominance, and keeping energy affordable and reliable for the customers we’re privileged to serve.
While it may not be true everywhere, the Southeast is open for business. Utilities are effectively meeting the rising demand for electricity from new large-load customers, like AI data centers, while keeping energy rates more than 10 percent below the national average.
You may be asking how is that possible? It’s because our customer-first market structure allows us to work directly with new large-load customers to identify their needs, generate the necessary power to bring them online, and ensure they pay their fair share of system costs. This approach works: Atlanta is now the nation’s top destination for new data centers.
But being a top destination for economic development and helping ensure America wins the AI race is not even the best part. The real win is that we’re powering this growth and energy dominance while keeping energy rates more than 10 percent below the national average. In Georgia, for example, we recently secured a three-year base-rate freeze, which is a major victory for households and local businesses. Our belief is simple: building America’s future should never come at the expense of the people who make this country work.
Our commitment to delivering value to our customers is bolstered by the strong bipartisan leadership of federal, state, and local officials across our region. Our customers are benefiting from innovative approaches and common-sense rules around powering new large-load customers. A good example is new rules passed by the Georgia Public Service Commission that ensure the costs of serving energy-intensive facilities are borne by those customers directly, not from residential customers.
“Customers continue to be at the center of everything we do. Our focus on the customer underpins our disciplined approach to forecasting, pricing, contracting and deploying resources to serve this once-in-a-generation growth opportunity. And we continue to execute on those plans for the benefits of all of our customers.” — Chris Womack, chairman, president and CEO, Southern Company.
For more than a century, Southern Company has been at the forefront of American energy innovation. We’ve powered economic growth and development across the Southeast and beyond. We just built the first new American nuclear plant in over 30 years, which is a historic milestone for reliable baseload power and proof that America can still do hard things.
We’re not stopping there. We’re planning to invest over $70 billion in energy infrastructure to support a growing economy and ensure the U.S. remains the world’s energy superpower.
We also understand that energy reliability isn’t just about powering growth, it’s about being prepared for the unexpected. When Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast last year with 140 mph winds and devastating floods, it damaged critical infrastructure across our service territory. Power lines, transformers, and thousands of poles were destroyed. But we were ready. Southern Company activated teams across our system, and within just 11 days, we restored service to 99 percent of the nearly 1.5 million customers impacted by the storm. That’s the kind of resilience America needs and deserves.
If America is serious about beating China in the AI race, it should look to the Southeast. Southern Company’s approach proves that growth does not have to come at the expense of affordability. By combining smart infrastructure investment, a customer-first market structure, and a commitment to fair cost-sharing, we’re enabling explosive growth in AI and advanced manufacturing.
As America enters a new era of energy innovation, Southern Company is leading the way. Together with partners across the public and private sectors, we’re building the future of energy and ensuring America stays ahead.
Breitbart News
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