Inventing our future: Southern Company's new hub to deliver tomorrow's solutions, today

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Apr 01, 2015, 10:00 ET

ATLANTA, April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Electricity use in America has grown five times faster than other energy sources over the past four decades. That means delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable power is no longer an aspiration – it is a necessity. That is why Southern Company has announced the creation of a new hub that will help the company deliver the solutions its customers need for today – and for tomorrow.

"Our customers are looking for solutions, and they want a partner who can make their lives, their quality of life better," said Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning. "It is through cutting-edge innovation – solutions that improve our lives every day – that we can create better, more efficient ways to deliver power and help solve some of the challenges our customers face."

In the coming months, Southern Company's hub – to be known as the Energy Innovation Center and located in Atlanta's Technology Square – will look for better, more reliable and more efficient ways to increase value for customers through products and services. Among the first ideas to be tested: those submitted by Southern Company system employees for a companywide competition aimed at harnessing the power of employees' innovation and collaboration to address future energy challenges.

"Our employees understand what our customers want; they serve them every day. Their ideas will help deliver an energy future that is clean, safe, reliable and affordable," continued Fanning. "What better place to make those ideas come to life than our new hub in the heart of Georgia's technology sector? We are excited about the possibilities."

Southern Company will seek partnerships with leading Southeast universities and other strategic partners to be named in the coming months.

"With a strong and stable economy fueled by Fortune 500 companies, leading technology innovators and respected universities, Atlanta is an ideal home for creating real solutions to America's energy challenges," Fanning added.

The Energy Innovation Center will become a place where ideas, innovation, and investment will intersect to develop a better customer experience. And it is a perfect complement to the nearly $2 billion investment the Southern Company system has managed in robust, proprietary research and development since 1970, helping to improve the ways it produces and delivers electricity to customers.

With more than 4.5 million customers and approximately 46,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast through its subsidiaries. A leading U.S. producer of clean, safe, reliable and affordable 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 energy innovation, excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company and its subsidiaries are leading the nation's nuclear renaissance through the construction of the first new nuclear units to be built in a generation of Americans and are demonstrating their commitment to energy innovation through the development of a state-of-the-art coal gasification plant. Southern Company has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense and G.I. Jobs magazine as a top military employer, listed by DiversityInc as a top company for Blacks and designated a 2013 Top Employer for Hispanics by Hispanic Network. The company received the Edison Award from the Edison Electric Institute for its leadership in new nuclear development, was named Electric Light & Power magazine's Utility of the Year for 2012 and is continually ranked among the top utilities in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.

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SOURCE Southern Company