Southern Company announces wholesale power agreement with Progress Energy Carolinas

ATLANTA – Southern Company announced today that it has signed a long-term wholesale power agreement with Progress Energy Carolinas, a subsidiary of Progress Energy. Under the agreement, Southern Company will provide 150 megawatts of wholesale power to Progress Energy Carolinas from 2010 through 2019.

Power to supply Progress Energy Carolinas will be provided by Southern Power, the subsidiary of Southern Company that acquires, builds, owns and operates Southern Company’s competitive generation assets. Southern Power is the largest wholesale energy provider in the Southeast, meeting the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives and shareholder-owned utilities in one of the fastest growing regions of the country.

Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 diversified energy company with more than 23,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $10 billion in annual revenues. The company’s holdings include two electric utilities serving approximately 3.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Progress Energy also includes energy marketing and other non-regulated operations. Progress Energy is the 2006 recipient of the Edison Electric Institute’s Edison Award, the industry’s highest honor, in recognition of its operational excellence. Progress Energy was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates Founder’s Award for dedication, commitment and sustained improvement in customer service. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.progress-energy.com.

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 been listed one of the top ranking U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction for eight consecutive years by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).