ATLANTA – Southern Company announced today it has closed on the purchase of the Rowan County Energy Complex from Progress Energy. 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.

Earlier this year, Southern Company closed on the purchase of the DeSoto County Energy Complex from Progress Energy. 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.

The total purchase price for both facilities is $405 million. Now that the purchases are finalized, both facilities are 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. Both electric generating facilities are located in growing markets that are key to Southern Company’s competitive wholesale growth strategy.

With 4.3 million customers and more than 41,000 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 received the highest ranking in customer satisfaction among U.S. electric service providers for seven consecutive years by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).