By Diana DiGangi ofUtilityDive,
The company has 28 large load projects representing 11 GW under contract, and Georgia Power’s first-quarter capital expenditures increased year over year from $1.6 billion to $2 billion.
Southern Company reported 2.3% year-over-year growth in retail electricity sales across its utilities for the first quarter of this year, driven predominantly by data centers.
Overall,data centers used 42% more power compared to the first quarter of 2025,according to company officials and Southern’s quarterly reportto the Securities and Exchange Commission.The company has 28 large load projects representing 11 GW under contract, up slightly from 26 projects at 10 GW at the end of 2025, it said.
Across Southern’s vertically-integrated electric utilities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, its largest subsidiary, Georgia Power, increased its first-quarter capital spending year-over-year from $1.6 billion to more than $2 billion.
Last week,Georgia Powerfiled a request with regulatorsseeking an additional 2 GW to 6 GWin new, all-source capacity, including thermal generation, energy storage systems and battery storage plus renewables, to meet rising energy demands.
The 2.3% growth “represents the highest total retail sales growth that we’ve seen in the first quarter in recent history,” said CFO David Poroch on a Thursday earnings call. “The commercial class grew 4.5% in the first quarter when adjusted for weather, bolstered by ongoing growth in data centers.”
BY THE NUMBERS: SOUTHERN COMPANYQ1 2026
Outside of signed contracts, Poroch said Southern is finalizing another 6 GW of large load customers and claims to have a “prospective pipeline” of 75 GW, according to its earnings presentation.
“We continue to see incredible momentum and tangible interest for power from large load customers,”said CEO Chris Womack.
Source: ZeroHedge News
