ATLANTA – Southern Company today announced that its switchgrass renewable energy project has taken its second environmental award. The company is testing the use of switchgrass at its Gadsden Steam Plant, which is owned and operated by the company’s Alabama Power subsidiary.

Billy Zemo, a senior engineer at Plant Gadsden, and Doug Boylan, a research engineer at Southern Company in Birmingham, have won the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) 2001 Technology Transfer Award for helping utility industry leaders and others better understand the possible uses of environmentally friendly switchgrass to produce electricity.

Switchgrass is a native prairie grass grown easily in the South. When blended with coal to use as a fuel, emissions can be reduced by 10 percent or more. Initial results from the mixing of switchgrass and coal in Gadsden’s 60-megawatt Unit 2 facility showed switchgrass to be a potential energy source, in that it reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury.

“Southern Company will remain at the forefront of environmental research and development,” said Paul Bowers, president of Southern Company Generation and Energy Marketing. “As we are looking for environmental solutions, switchgrass is just one of many options we are considering to further diversify our fuel mix to prepare for future energy demands.”

In addition to the EPRI award, Plant Gadsden’s switchgrass project also won the Southeastern Electric Exchange’s (SEE) annual Industry Excellence Award. Boylan and Zemo, along with Jack Eastis, a research specialist at Southern Company in Birmingham, were instrumental in winning the SEE environmental category award.

EPRI, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., was established in 1973 as a center for public interest energy and environmental research. EPRI`s collaborative science and technology development program now spans nearly every area of power generation, delivery and use. EPRI has helped fund the switchgrass project, along with Southern Company, Alabama Power and the U.S. Department of Energy. Southern Research Institute and Auburn University also contributed to the study.

SEE is a non-profit trade association that represents investor-owned utilities across the Southeast and as far north and west as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. The association was founded in 1933.

With 4 million customers and nearly 35,000 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 and an energy services 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.