ATLANTA – Southern Company today announced that it has signed agreements with Progress Energy to purchase two electric generating plants – the DeSoto County Energy Complex in Florida and the Rowan County Energy Complex in North Carolina. The total purchase price for both facilities is $405 million, subject to adjustments as provided in the purchase agreements.

DeSoto, located in Arcadia, Fla., approximately 40 miles southeast of Sarasota, consists of two 160-megawatt combustion turbine generating units, primarily fueled by natural gas. Rowan is located in Salisbury, N.C., approximately 50 miles northeast of Charlotte, and consists of three simple-cycle, natural gas-fueled generating units and a combined-cycle unit totaling 925 megawatts of generating capacity. These electric generating facilities are located in growing markets that are key to Southern Company’s competitive wholesale growth strategy.

Once the purchases are finalized, both facilities will be owned and operated by Southern Power, the subsidiary of Southern Company that builds, owns and operates Southern Company’s competitive generation assets. Southern Power currently serves municipalities, electric cooperatives and shareholder-owned utilities throughout the Southeast.

All of the output of the DeSoto power plant is sold through a wholesale contract to Florida Power and Light (FP&L). Once the transaction is completed, Southern Power will assume responsibility for this contract. Southern Power has existing long-term wholesale power agreements with FP&L, as well as with other customers in Florida.

The Rowan facility supplies electricity through long-term wholesale power contracts to Duke Power and North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1. Southern Power will assume responsibility for these contracts once the transaction is completed. In addition, Southern Power has the option to terminate the contract to purchase Rowan at any time on or before June 15, 2006, which will allow Southern Power to complete negotiations for additional wholesale agreements. In the Carolinas, Southern Power also currently serves Piedmont Municipal Power Agency and North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation.

With 4.3 million customers and more than 40,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast, one of America’s fastest-growing regions. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, 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 significantly below the national average. Southern Company has been ranked the nation's top electric utility in the American Customer Satisfaction Index six years in a row. Visit our Web site at www.southerncompany.com.

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