ATLANTA – Southern Company Energy Marketing, the energy trading and marketing arm of Southern Energy Inc., announced today that sales of both electricity and gas were up in 1999, with electricity sales increasing by 18 percent.

Southern Company Energy Marketing sold 219.35 million megawatt-hours of electricity during 1999, compared with 185.51 million megawatt-hours during 1998. For the fourth quarter of 1999, the company sold 55.14 million megawatt-hours, compared with 38.37 million for the fourth quarter of 1998, an increase of 44 percent.

The company sold an average of 5.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 1999, compared with 5.3 billion cubic feet per day during 1998. For the fourth quarter of 1999, the company sold 6.2 billion cubic feet per day, down slightly from the 6.3 billion cubic feet per day registered in the fourth quarter of 1998.

A megawatt-hour of electricity will power a large commercial operation, such as a supermarket, for one hour. Under typical conditions, a cubic foot of natural gas will create enough heat to boil about 2 gallons of water.

Southern Company Energy Marketing, based in Atlanta, is jointly owned by Southern Energy and Vastar Resources Inc. Southern Company Energy Marketing provides energy trading, marketing and financial services and other energy-related commodities, products and services to customers in North America. Southern Energy, a unit of Southern Company, develops, builds, owns and operates power production and delivery facilities and provides a broad range of services to utilities and industrial companies around the world. Southern Energy has operations in 12 countries on five continents.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the largest producer of electricity in the United States, is also the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.

Southern Company Energy Marketing
Year-end and 4th Quarter 1999 Sales 1999 1998 Power, 1999 (MWH, in millions)219.35185.51 Power, 4th Qtr. (MWH, in millions) 55.1438.37 Gas, 1999 (bcf/day) 5.45.3 Gas, 4th Qtr. (bcf/day)6.26.3