“Our earnings remained strong in the first quarter of 1995, thanks in part to an increase in demand from our commercial and industrial customers for electricity,” Southern Company Chairman A.W. “Bill” Dahlberg said today.

The Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the parent firm of five electric utilities: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power, and Savannah Electric. The Southern Company`s common stock is one of the 20 most widely held corporate stocks in America.

Dahlberg announced that earnings for the three months ending March 31, 1995, were $206 million or 31 cents a share, compared with $142 million or 22 cents per share for the same period in 1994.

Earnings for the 12 months ending March 31, 1995, were $1.05 billion or $1.61 a share, compared with $966 million or $1.51 a share for the 12-month period ending March 31, 1994.

Earnings for the three months and the 12 months ending March 31, 1994, were affected by a $45 million charge for work-force reduction programs at Georgia Power and a $13 million charge for work-force reduction programs at Southern Company Services, another subsidiary. Earnings for the first quarters of 1995 and 1994 are nearly equal when 1994 numbers are adjusted to exclude the charges.

Reviewing operations, Dahlberg said electricity use by retail customers in The Southern Company`s service area increased 2.2 percent to 28.9 billion kilowatt-hours during the first three months of 1995. In-home electricity needs were down four-tenths of a percent to 8.6 billion kilowatt-hours. Electricity consumption by commercial customers — offices, stores, and other non- manufacturing firms — gained 2.3 percent to 7.9 billion kilowatt-hours. Industrial energy use increased 4.1 percent to 12.2 billion kilowatt-hours.

Total sales of electricity to customers of The Southern Company — including sales to other utilities — were down 2.1 percent to 32.7 billion kilowatt-hours for the first three months of 1995.