Southern Company today announced that its Alabama Power subsidiary has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue testing advanced mercury control technologies at its E. C. Gaston generation plant near Wilsonville, Ala.

“We are excited to participate in this second phase of the technology development, where we will learn about the long-term performance and reliability of activated carbon injection,” said Dr. Charles Goodman, senior vice president, research and environmental affairs for Southern Company. “We take pride in our continuing effort to play a leadership role in developing innovative approaches that lessen the impact of our operations on the environment.”

As part of the process, activated carbon and potentially other materials will be injected into an existing COHPAC-type, low pressure pulse-jet fabric filter ash-collection system already installed on the plant site. The materials will absorb the mercury, which could result in substantial emissions reduction.

Plant Gaston was the site chosen by DOE for the nation`s first full-scale mercury control testing in 2000. The initial work on the technology was completed in 2001, with reductions of greater than 80 percent achieved.

The additional long-term mercury control testing will be performed to mature the technology. This one-year test will more fully assess the cost and performance of the technology over time as well as its impacts on the operation of the entire generating plant. The project team hopes to build on the previous successes and learn more of the capabilities and limitations of the technology.

The mercury control system to be used by Alabama Power`s Plant Gaston has been developed by ADA-Environmental Solutions, a subsidiary of Earth Sciences, Inc., based in Colorado. The process of injecting sorbents, such as activated carbon, for mercury control before a baghouse but after an electrostatic precipitator is an EPRI-patented process called TOXECONTM. One advantage of the TOXECONTM process is that the sorbent and marketable fly ash are collected separately.

According to Dr. Michael Durham, president of ADA-ES, “Sorbent injection continues to be the most promising technology available to reduce emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants. The control system that was initially tested at Plant Gaston was shown to provide significant reductions in mercury emissions. Continued testing of the technology will provide valuable information on long-term operational impacts. DOE continuously supports efforts such as this. They have taken a leadership role over the past decade in working with industry and technology developers to provide cost effective mercury control technologies.”

Southern Company and Alabama Power will work with ADA-ES, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Allegheny Energy, Arch Coal Inc. (ACI), FirstEnergy, Hamon Research-Cottrell, Ontario Power Generation and TVA. DOE will fund 55 percent of the $2.1 million project cost with Alabama Power and the other participating companies co-funding the remaining 45 percent. Testing at Plant Gaston will begin in the first quarter of 2003.

Southern Company and Alabama Power are among the industry leaders in advanced environmental control technologies. Southern Company’s Power Systems Development Facility, also located near Plant Gaston in Wilsonville, is researching innovative technologies that could allow power plants to make the same amount of electricity while burning one-third less coal. The technologies also remove or reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and particles from the coal combustion process.

Southern Company is working aggressively to reduce its impact on the environment and has made substantial progress in controlling emissions of NOx. Since 1990, Southern Company has eliminated nearly 30 percent of the company’s total emissions of nitrogen oxides by using cleaner fuels and installing NOx-reduction technology. The company currently is investing more than $1 billion to further reduce NOx emissions and expects to invest an additional $4 billion or more between now and 2012 to further reduce emissions.

ADA Environmental Solutions, LLC is an environmental technology and specialty chemical company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado. The company brings 25 years of experience to improve profitability for electric power and industrial companies through proprietary products and systems that mitigate environmental impact while reducing operating costs. ADA-ES is a subsidiary of Earth Sciences, whose common stock trades on the OTCBB under the symbol ESCI.

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.