ATLANTA – Southern Company’s second quarter earnings were $332 million, or 47 cents per share, as seasonably warm weather in the Southeast contributed to increased demand for electricity, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Allen Franklin said today.

The warmer weather in the second quarter contrasted with the unusually mild temperatures that reduced demand for electricity last year.

The results for the period, which exceeded analysts’ expectations, compared with reported earnings of $270 million, or 40 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2001.

“Our ongoing focus on executing our strategy, along with several positive factors including more favorable weather conditions, combined to produce a very successful second quarter,” Franklin said. “We remain confident of meeting or exceeding our financial, operational and customer service targets for the year.” Other positive contributors to the second quarter results, Franklin said, included lower interest rates, continued customer growth, a solid performance by Southern Company’s competitive generation business and the overall impact of regulatory rate proceedings in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi. These factors offset the negative earnings impact of higher operation and maintenance costs associated with new generation units that have come on line in the past year and the effect of additional shares outstanding.

For the first six months of this year, Southern Company had earnings of $556 million, or 79 cents per share, compared with $450 million, or 66 cents per share in the same period a year ago.

Revenues for the second quarter were $2.6 billion, compared with $2.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. Six-month revenues were $4.8 billion, compared with $4.8 billion in the same period of 2001.

In keeping with its focus on providing a competitive return to shareholders, Southern Company last week announced it is raising its dividend by 3 cents to $1.37 per share on an annual basis. Southern Company also received regulatory approval last week to enter the retail gas business in Georgia.

Reviewing operations, Franklin said electricity use by retail customers in Southern Company`s four-state service area increased 2.2 percent to 72.3 billion kilowatt-hours in the first six months of 2002. In-home electricity needs were up 5.3 percent to 22.3 billion kilowatt-hours. Electricity use by commercial customers -- offices, stores and other non-manufacturing firms – increased 2.3 percent to 23.1 billion kilowatt-hours. Industrial energy use declined 0.3 percent to 26.4 billion kilowatt-hours.

Total sales of electricity to Southern Company`s customers in the Southeast, including sales to other utilities, increased 2.5 percent to 86.8 billion kilowatt-hours.

In conjunction with this earnings announcement, Southern Company has posted on its Web site a package of detailed financial information on its second quarter performance. These materials are available at 7:30 a.m. EDT July 22 at www.southerncompany.com.

Southern Company`s financial analyst call will be at 1 p.m. EDT July 22, at which time Franklin and Chief Financial Officer Gale Klappa will discuss earnings and provide a general business update. Investors, media and the public may listen to a live Webcast of the call at www.southerncompany.com. A replay of the Webcast will be available at the site for 10 days.

With 4 million customers and nearly 37,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier super-regional energy company in the Southeast and a leading U.S. producer of electricity. Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states, a fast-growing competitive generation company, an energy services business and a competitive retail natural gas business, 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 15 percent below the national average. Southern Company has been named No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s 2002 “America’s Most Admired Companies” list in the Electric and Gas Utility industry. Southern Company has more than 500,000 shareholders, making its common stock one of the most widely held in the United States. Visit the Southern Company Web site at www.southerncompany.com.