Southern Electric International Inc. has entered into an agreement with Federated Department Stores, Inc. to develop and implement a national strategy to reduce electricity costs for its more than 400 retail locations, Southern Electric President Tom Boren announced today.

Under the agreement, Southern Electric will assist Federated in implementing electric rate negotiation strategies designed to take advantage of new pricing structures emerging in the increasingly competitive U.S. electricity market.

“We recognize that major changes are coming to the electricity industry that will enable us to buy electricity in a more competitive environment,” said Tom Jones, Federated’s executive responsible for the company’s national energy program. “Southern Electric International will assist us in working with our existing electricity suppliers to lower our energy costs by taking advantage of the regulatory changes coming to the electric power industry.

“Reducing costs and creating opportunities such as this, allows Federated to operate more efficiently and to provide better value to our customers,” Jones added.

In addition, Southern Electric will employ its newly developed Enet (TM) meter-linked information services to help consolidate Federated’s transactions with its more than 80 electricity suppliers.

“Federated will be Southern Electric’s first national customer using the Enet services,” said Bill Roth, Southern Electric’s director of marketing. “Enet will provide Federated with a menu of information services that will allow more targeted, customized reports and procedures to better manage each store’s electricity usage.”

Federated (NYSE: FD), with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation’s leading department store retailers, with annual sales of more than $15 billion. Federated currently operates more than 400 department stores and 150 specialty stores in 36 states. Federated’s department stores operate under the names of Bloomingdale’s, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith’s, Lazarus, Macy’s, Rich’s and Stern’s.

Southern Electric, a unit of The Southern Company, develops, builds, owns and operates power production facilities and provides a broad range of technical services to industrial companies, utilities and utility customers in the U.S. and international markets.

The Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the nation’s largest producer of electricity, is also the parent firm of five electric utilities: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Other subsidiaries include Southern Communications Services, Southern Development and Investment Group, Southern Nuclear and Southern Company Services. The Southern Company’s common stock is one of the 20 most widely held corporate stocks in America.