Southern Co. full-year profits rise with Georgia Power customer bills

Atlanta-based Southern Co. profits increased to $4.4 billion in 2024, up from $4 billion the year before, thanks to higher utility revenues, the company announced Thursday.

CEO Chris Womack struck an upbeat note about the year ahead, saying the company’s projections of a surge in load growth from new technology and manufacturing facilities have not been dented by recent innovations in artificial intelligence that could have implications for future energy demand. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis found that past forecasts of peak demand by Georgia Power — the company’s most profitable subsidiary — often overestimated actual peak demand.

“We see the requests continue to grow,” Womack said. He added that recently-passed regulation and longer-term contracts will help mitigate the risk to the company and ratepayers of building out new infrastructure if the growth fails to materialize.

Despite a dip in fourth quarter earnings due to Hurricane Helene and other factors, Southern Co. touted 23 consecutive years of increased dividends to shareholders. More than 90% of the company’s earnings come from state-regulated electric and gas utilities, it said. Operating revenues for 2024 were $26.7 billion, compared with $25.3 billion in 2023, an increase of 5.8%. Expenses for 2024 were $19.7 billion compared with $19.4 billion in 2023.

The results follow a series of regulator-approved rate hikes for customers of Georgia Power that have caused average residential customer bills to increase by about $43 a month since 2023, according to company data. Those customers are locked in due to a state law that grants territorial monopolies to electric utilities.

Georgia Power increased operating revenue for the full year of 2024 to about $11 billion from about $10 billion. Its profits increased 22% to $2.5 billion. Georgia Power’s profits are capped at 11.9%. Forty percent of earnings above that have to be refunded to customers, but Georgia Power can keep 20% as profit and use the remaining 40% to pay down asset liabilities.

Womack said in order to meet the new energy demands while ensuring reliability, the company has to charge ratepayers for investments in its system.

“We have a number of stakeholders that we have to respond to,” Womack said of the parallel increases in profits and customer bills. Among the company’s stakeholders are its shareholders.

“We try to balance all of that, and we think we do a pretty good job at it,” he said.

In the fourth quarter, revenue increased, but that was offset by increases in operational and maintenance expenses and other costs, the company said. As a result, quarterly net income declined.

Some of that increased spending was caused by Hurricane Helene, which Dan Tucker, Southern’s CFO, called the most destructive storm in Georgia Power history. He said current damage cost estimates are around $850 million. How much of that gets passed on to Georgia Power customers will be decided by state regulators, he added.

Like many businesses, Womack said the company was keeping a close eye on policy shifts from the White House that could affect regulation and trade. He reiterated the company’s goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while indicating that its generation decisions were driven primarily by economics. Southern Co. has been criticized by environmental groups for adding more gas generation and seeking to extend the life of coal plants previously slated for closure, including Plant Scherer near Macon and Plant Bowen outside Cartersville.

“You’ll probably see some coal plant extensions for a few years,” he said. “That (2050 net-zero) goal is there, but it’s a goal.”

A note of disclosure

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