The Southern Company
Company History
Southern History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 1945 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States
When was Southern founded?
Southern was founded in 1945 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States by Philip Futterer and Eugene A. Cook, making it 81 years old.
- Founded
- 1945
- Founding place
- Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- Founders
- Philip Futterer and Eugene A. Cook
- Headquarters today
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Milestones documented
- 12 (1945–2026)
- Current CEO
- Christopher Womack
- Acquisitions
- 3
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1945 | Formation of The Southern Company |
| 1980 | Plant Vogtle Construction Begins |
| 2001 | Mirant Spin-Off |
| 2010 | Thomas A. Fanning becomes CEO |
| 2013 | Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 construction under way |
| 2016 | Acquisition of AGL Resources |
| 2016 | Acquired PowerSecure |
| 2017 | Kemper Coal Gasification Suspended |
| 2023 | Plant Vogtle Unit 3 Enters Service |
| 2023 | Chris Womack becomes CEO |
| 2024 | Plant Vogtle Unit 4 Enters Service |
| 2026 | $81B capital plan, DOE loan and 17 GW of large load |
- Where was Southern founded?
- Southern was founded in Atlanta, Georgia, United States in 1945.
- Who founded Southern?
- Southern was founded by Philip Futterer and Eugene A. Cook.
- When did Southern start?
- Southern was founded in 1945.
- How old is Southern?
- Southern is 81 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Southern Company traces its roots to Commonwealth & Southern, the 1930s utility holding company led by Wendell Willkie. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 forced such holding companies to break up, and Southern Company was organized in 1945 to hold the southeastern utilities, including Alabama Power and Georgia Power. It became an independent public company in 1949 and later added Mississippi Power, Gulf Power (sold to NextEra in 2019) and, through the 2016 AGL Resources deal, a large gas business.
Founders
Philip Futterer
Philip Futterer is listed in this profile among the people associated with organizing The Southern Company in 1945, when Commonwealth & Southern's southeastern utilities were reorganized under the Public Utility Holding Company Act. Detailed public biographical records are limited.
Eugene A. Cook
Eugene A. Cook is listed in this profile among the people associated with organizing The Southern Company in 1945, when Commonwealth & Southern's southeastern utilities were reorganized under the Public Utility Holding Company Act. Detailed public biographical records are limited.
Key Milestones
Formation of The Southern Company
The Southern Company is officially incorporated on November 9, 1945, following the regulatory reorganization of Southeastern utility holdings to comply with the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPlant Vogtle Construction Begins
Construction work on Plant Vogtle Units 1 and 2 in Burke County, Georgia, moved forward; the units entered service in 1987 and 1989.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMirant Spin-Off
Southern Company spun off its merchant power business, Mirant, in 2001.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThomas A. Fanning becomes CEO
Thomas A. Fanning became CEO of The Southern in 2010. Tom Fanning was CEO from December 2010 to May 2023 and stayed on as executive chairman into 2024.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPlant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 construction under way
Georgia Power began licensed construction on Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 after receiving NRC licenses in 2012, the first new US nuclear units started in decades.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAcquisition of AGL Resources
Southern Company completed the acquisition of AGL Resources in July 2016, creating Southern Company Gas with about 4.5 million gas customers.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKemper Coal Gasification Suspended
Mississippi Power suspended coal gasification at the Kemper County plant in June 2017 after years of cost overruns.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPlant Vogtle Unit 3 Enters Service
After years of delays and cost overruns, Plant Vogtle Unit 3 officially enters commercial operation, adding 1,100 megawatts of zero-carbon baseload power to the Southeastern grid.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgChris Womack becomes CEO
Chris Womack became CEO of The Southern in 2023. Chris Womack became CEO in May 2023 and chairman in 2024 after leading Georgia Power and Southern Company external affairs.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPlant Vogtle Unit 4 Enters Service
Plant Vogtle Unit 4 entered commercial operation in April 2024, making Vogtle the largest nuclear plant in the US.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$81B capital plan, DOE loan and 17 GW of large load
Southern Company raised its 2026-2030 capital plan to $81B, received a $26.5B DOE loan package for Georgia Power and Alabama Power, and reported 17 GW of contracted large load by July 2026.
Source: southerncompany.comMajor Acquisitions
AGL Resources
2016The all-cash deal, about $12B including assumed debt, added a regulated gas distribution business to Southern's electric utilities.
PowerSecure
2016Added distributed generation, microgrid and utility infrastructure services.
Southern Natural Gas (50% interest)
2016Southern Company bought a 50 percent interest in the Southern Natural Gas pipeline system from Kinder Morgan in 2016.
Keep researching Southern
Southern Company History FAQ
When and how was The Southern Company originally established?
The Southern Company was incorporated in Delaware on November 9, 1945, and organized in Atlanta, Georgia. It was created to comply with the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) of 1935, which mandated the breakup of sprawling utility conglomerates, leading to the dissolution of Commonwealth & Southern Corporation and the unified consolidation of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Mississippi Power.
What was Commonwealth & Southern Corporation and who was Wendell Willkie?
Commonwealth & Southern was a massive multi-state utility holding company formed in 1929 that owned power systems across eleven states. In the 1930s, its president Wendell Willkie famously fought President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Willkie gained national renown for defending private utility enterprise and became the Republican presidential nominee in 1940.
Who were the key figures in creating the modern Southern Company in 1945?
Key figures included Eugene A. Yates, a prominent electrical engineer who served as the first chairman of Southern Company (and after whom Plant Yates in Georgia is named), and Thomas W. Martin, the longtime visionary president of Alabama Power who helped negotiate the post-PUHCA reorganization to preserve regional coordination across the Southeast.
What are the foundational electric operating subsidiaries of Southern Company?
Southern Company was built upon three anchor electric operating companies: Georgia Power (founded as Georgia Railway and Electric Company), Alabama Power (founded in 1906 by William Patrick Lay), and Mississippi Power (founded in 1924 by Barney Eaton). A fourth original subsidiary, Florida's Gulf Power, was sold to NextEra Energy in 2019.
What is the significance of Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Waynesboro, Georgia?
Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 represent the first newly designed and constructed commercial nuclear reactors brought online in the United States in over thirty years. Utilizing Westinghouse AP1000 advanced pressurized water reactor technology, Unit 3 entered commercial service in July 2023, followed by Unit 4 in April 2024, making Vogtle the largest generator of clean electricity in the nation.
What challenges did Southern Company overcome during the construction of Plant Vogtle?
The Vogtle expansion faced immense hurdles, including the 2017 Chapter 11 bankruptcy of primary contractor Westinghouse Electric, severe regulatory design changes, pandemic supply disruptions, and multi-year delays that pushed total capital expenditures over $30 billion. Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear assumed direct project management to bring both units into commercial operation.
What happened with the Kemper County energy facility in Mississippi?
Mississippi Power spent several billion dollars constructing the Kemper County energy facility as an advanced integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant intended to gasify local lignite coal with carbon capture. After severe engineering delays and cost escalations, the Mississippi Public Service Commission ordered the project halted in 2017, and it was converted into a conventional combined-cycle natural gas generating plant, with shareholders absorbing major write-offs.
When did Southern Company expand into natural gas distribution?
In July 2016, Southern Company completed a transformational $12 billion acquisition of AGL Resources, rebranding it as Southern Company Gas. The transaction added major local gas distribution companies across Illinois (Nicor Gas), Georgia (Atlanta Gas Light), Virginia (Virginia Natural Gas), and Tennessee, nearly doubling Southern Company's customer accounts to 9 million.
Why did Southern Company sell Gulf Power to NextEra Energy in 2019?
In January 2019, Southern Company finalized the sale of Gulf Power and natural gas assets in Florida to NextEra Energy (parent of Florida Power & Light) for $5.75 billion in cash. The strategic divestiture allowed Southern Company to pay down corporate debt, strengthen its credit metrics, and fund ongoing capital requirements for the Plant Vogtle nuclear build.
How did Southern Company transition its power generation fleet away from coal?
Historically one of the most coal-dependent utilities in North America, Southern Company systematically retired dozens of aging coal-fired boilers between 2010 and 2025. It replaced them with efficient combined-cycle natural gas units, utility-scale solar arrays, and emission-free baseload nuclear power at Vogtle, cutting fleet greenhouse gas emissions by over 50% from 2007 levels.
Who made history by becoming Southern Company's CEO in May 2023?
Christopher C. Womack was appointed President and CEO of Southern Company in May 2023 (and Chairman in December 2023), succeeding long-tenured CEO Thomas A. Fanning. Womack made history as the first African American chief executive officer in Southern Company's history, having previously served as CEO of Georgia Power and executive VP of external affairs.
How has industrial and economic growth across the American Southeast shaped Southern Company?
Over the post-WWII era and accelerating into the 2020s, the Sun Belt migration, automotive electrification manufacturing corridors (Hyundai Metaplant, Rivian, SK On), and hyperscale AI data center construction across Georgia and Alabama turned Southern Company's service territories into the fastest-growing power demand markets in the United States.
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