- Business
- Alabama Power Company (APRDP), a subsidiary of Southern Company, operates as an investor-owned electric utility providing retail and wholesale electricity services to approximately 1.5 million residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers across the southern two-thirds of Alabama, spanning a 44,500-square-mile service territory with more than 84,000 miles of power lines. The company generates power through a diverse portfolio including coal-fired plants such as James H. Miller Jr., Ernest C. Gaston, and William Crawford Gorgas; natural gas and oil-fired facilities like James M. Barry; the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Generating Station; 16 hydroelectric plants on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Black Warrior rivers including Weiss, Logan Martin, and Jordan; and cogeneration plants including Theodore, Washington County, and Sabic; while also offering commercial and industrial services encompassing energy efficiency programs, power quality solutions, outdoor lighting, clean energy options, pole attachments, project management, site selection, and appliance sales. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, since relocating there in 1912, Alabama Power traces its origins to December 4, 1906, when it was founded in Gadsden by William Patrick Lay to pioneer the state's first central station generation and transmission system using hydroelectric dams. In recent developments, the company secured approval from the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2025 to acquire the 895-megawatt Lindsay Hill natural gas-fired power plant near Billingsley from Tenaska subsidiaries for $622 million, marking its latest addition to over 3,400 megawatts of gas infrastructure secured through purchases, builds, or power purchase agreements since 2020 to address resource shortfalls identified in its integrated resource plan; it also earned recognition on Site Selection magazine's 2025 Top Utilities list alongside affiliates Georgia Power and Mississippi Power for economic development contributions. Alabama Power maintains six regional divisions—Birmingham, Mobile, Eastern (Anniston), Western (Tuscaloosa), Southern (Montgomery), and Southeast (Eufaula)—and supports community initiatives via the Alabama Power Foundation while emphasizing reliability above 99 percent and rates below the national average.