As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Greg McLeod, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Christine. Good afternoon, and welcome to Southern Company's first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Chris Womack, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Company, and David Paroch, Chief Financial Officer. Let me remind you that we will make forward-looking statements today in addition to providing historical information. Various important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, including those discussed in our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and subsequent securities filings. In addition, we will present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measure are included in the financial information we released this morning, as well as the slides for this conference call, which are both available on our Investor Relations website at investor.southerncompany.com. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Chris.

Thank you, Greg. Greg's new, and thank you for joining us today. As you can see from the materials that we released this morning, we reported adjusted earnings results for the first quarter above our estimate, with year-over-year growth reflected across all our major businesses. That performance reflects premium execution and the strength of our strategy to serve the phenomenal growth we're seeing across the southeast with reliable and affordable energy while delivering durable, long-term value for shareholders. We continue to see extraordinary growth and economic development opportunities as our service territories attract investment, people, and jobs at a pace few regions can match. As we previously highlighted, a substantial portion of this growth is driven by projected demand from large load customers. the demand for power across our electric service territories has culminated in 23 gigawatts of contracted or latent stage load in just the last two months we have signed contracts for another 1.9 gigawatts of customer load with high credit quality hyperscalers bringing our fully contracted large load agreements to more than 11 gigawatts across our electric subsidiaries these bilateral negotiated agreements are structured so that customers driving incremental demand cover the full share of the cost to serve them helping to assure this growth benefits all customers we continue to execute on our plans to serve growth and our straightforward approach protects existing customers we invest in line with demand to serve growth that enables us to deliver regular, predictable, and sustainable results while providing meaningful benefits to the customers and communities we are privileged to serve. Southern Company continues to be uniquely positioned to do this because of our scale, our experience, and our expertise, all supported by constructive, long-standing regulatory frameworks. At Southern Company, we are capitalizing on transformative growth opportunities. While delivering energy reliability and rate stability as energy demands growth, with base rates held stable in Alabama and Georgia until at least 2029, along with the recent filing to lower rates in Georgia associated with the recovery of fuel and storm costs, we are demonstrating the value of this approach rate stability for our customers is a purposeful objective supported by our constructive orderly planning and procurement processes cost management and thoughtful finance this same built for purpose approach also creates the potential for additional capital investment to serve incremental growth opportunities under established regulatory processes We have routinely demonstrated, as growth opportunities present themselves, that Southern Company has the ability to convert these opportunities into value through enhanced operations and grid-improving infrastructure investments for the benefit of customers and investors alike. the construction of many of these investments is well underway in the last two months georgia power achieved commercial operations for two battery energy storage systems providing nearly 200 megawatts of capacity representing an important step forward in advancing reliable sustainable energy solutions across the state these projects are the first of several resources included within in our 10 gigawatt portfolio of approved new generation resources that are in development to power the extraordinary productive growth in our region, including multiple battery systems and natural gas combustion turbines that are projected to be online later in 2026 and 2027. Before I turn the call over to David for our financial update, I'd like to highlight the recently announced historic $26.5 billion in loan agreements with the Department of Energy that will benefit customers across Alabama and Georgia for decades, as we expect these loans to translate into meaningful long-term customer savings while reducing pressure on our capital market needs. Over the approximately 30-year term of the DOE loans, this lower-cost financing is projected to generate cumulative savings of $7 billion for customers. David, I'll now turn the call over to you for a financial update.

Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. For the first quarter of 2026, our adjusted EPS was $1.32 per share, nine cents higher than the first quarter of 2025 and 12 cents above our estimate. The primary drivers of our performance for the quarter compared to last year were meaningful customer growth and increased usage, including from data centers at our state-regulated electric utilities. Additionally, increased revenues in our gas utilities and higher energy-related revenues in our unregulated businesses, including Southern Power, were positive drivers in the first quarter. This was partially offset by higher financing costs and milder weather year-over-year compared to the first quarter of 2025. A complete reconciliation of year-over-year earnings is included in the materials we released this morning. Our adjusted EPS estimate for the second quarter is $1 per share. Turning now to retail electricity sales, first quarter weather normal retail electricity sales to all classes were 2.3% higher than the first quarter of 2025. This represents the highest total retail sales growth that we've seen in the first quarter in recent history. In fact, sales to all three customer classes were up year over year, including residential, where we saw 46,000 new customers added to our system as positive trends and net migration continue. The commercial class grew four and a half percent in the first quarter when adjusted for weather, bolstered by ongoing growth in data centers. Data center usage saw material expansion in the quarter, up 42 percent year over year, primarily due to accelerating usage ramps at large load facilities. Our industrial sales grew 1.5 percent with particular strength in several segments, including robust activity at multiple steel manufacturers in Alabama. More broadly, the Southeast continues to stand out as one of the most attractive economic regions in the country, driven by a diverse mix of advanced manufacturing, technology, and other energy-intensive industries. In the first quarter alone, there were economic development announcements for over $7 billion dollars of capital investment and the creation of nearly 4,000 permanent jobs in our region, including a global biopharmaceutical manufacturing project north of Atlanta, bringing $2 billion of investment and over 300 jobs to Georgia. This sustained high-quality growth reinforces why demand in this region of the country remains strong and visible, underscoring the region's tremendous opportunity for future growth. Outside the Southeast, we continue to see momentum in our gas utilities, including a recently announced Hyundai investment in Illinois that is expected to bring 2,500 jobs and $500 million of investment to the Nikkor Gas Service Territory. As we look ahead, the interest from large-load customers in our electric service territories, which includes data centers and large manufacturers, remains strong with a prospective pipeline of well over 75 gigawatts, and we continue to make incredible progress advancing projects through stages in our large-load process to finality with executed contracts. As Chris mentioned, over the past two months, Georgia Power signed two projects representing 1.9 gigawatts, pushing the cumulative amount of contracted large loads to over 11 gigawatts across Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. These bilaterally negotiated contracts with pricing and terms designed to both protect and benefit existing customers also support our long-term financial outlook. We continue to see incredible momentum and tangible interest for power from large load customers and are in active late-stage discussions for another 12 gigawatts of contracted load through the mid-2030s, an increase of 2 gigawatts from what we shared last quarter. Importantly, roughly 6 gigawatts, or half of these late-stage gigawatts, are expected to be finalized with executed contracts in the near term. In a little over two months, we've seen projects representing 12 gigawatts advance to the next stage in our large load process. The demonstrated progress we are making in attracting and signing new agreements with large load customers is exciting and continues to drive projected growth in our risk-adjusted load forecast, which ultimately helps inform future generation needs and generation requests for proposals, or RFPs, across our service territory. For example, Georgia Power recently initiated the regulatory process for an all-source RFP to procure two to six gigawatts of new dispatchable generation resources, including from thermal generation, battery energy storage, and renewables that are projected to be in service in 2032 to 2033. Generation procurement through RFPs delivers substantial value to customers and is a testament to the transparent and orderly processes in our vertically integrated state-regulated markets with long-range integrated resource planning. To the extent that company-owned resources are selected through Alabama Power and Georgia Power's active RFP processes and ultimately authorized by their respective PSC, these generation investments would represent substantial incremental investment above our current base capital plan. Turning to Southern Power, we are moving forward to add 400 megawatts of additional capacity upgrades through natural gas turbine upgrades in multiple existing facilities in Alabama and Georgia, with commercial operation projected between 2029 and 2031. This incremental investment is projected to add approximately $700 million to our capital plan over the next several years. We continue to evaluate other growth investment opportunities at Southern Power, including an additional 300 megawatts of natural gas uprates, as well as other new generation opportunities in both the Southeast and other markets to meet future demand. Before I turn the call back over to Chris, I'd like to provide an update on our financing activities through the first quarter. We continue to proactively address equity needs that support our strong credit quality and path towards 17% FFO to debt by 2029. Over the last quarter, we sourced an incremental $500 million of equity through our At the Market or ATM program with forward contracts that settle at our discretion by 2028. Combined with the significant amount of equity previously sourced, and including the incremental $700 million of Southern Power projected capital expenditures I mentioned earlier, we project a remaining need for equity or equity equivalents of approximately $1.8 billion through 2030 in support of our capital plan and long-term credit objectives.

We are well-positioned to continue financing our remaining equity needs in a credit supportive and shareholder focused fashion i'll now turn the call back over to chris thank you david last week the southern company board of directors approved an increase of eight cents per share in our annual common dividend raising the annualized rate to three dollars and four cent per share this action marks our 25th consecutive annual increase and this will now be 79 consecutive years dating back to 1948 southern company has paid a dividend that is equal to or greater than the previous year increasing dividend 25 years in a row represents a historic milestone for the company and underscores our focus on premium risk adjusted total shareholder return and our goal of delivering regular predictable, and sustainable value for our shareholders. We are incredibly proud of our strong dividend track record, which continues to be an integral part of Southern Company's long-term value proposition. As we conclude our discussion today, our first quarter results reinforce a simple point. Our company is delivering. We're off to a strong start in 2026, and that momentum gives us confidence as we continue executing our long-term goals. We're capturing growth, protecting customers, and creating long-term value, and we're doing it in a disciplined, predictable way. With that foundation, we have a bright future ahead. Thank you for joining us this afternoon and for your continued interest in Southern Company.

Operator, we are now ready to take questions thank you we will now be conducting a question and answer session if you would like to ask a question please press star 1 on your telephone keypad a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue you may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue for participants using speaker equipment it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys one moment please while poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Char Parizzo with Wells Fargo. Please receive your question. Hey, Char. Hey, guys.

Hey, Chris. All right. Not too bad. I hope you're doing well.

Good. Good for you.

Chris, just on new nuclear, there seems to be sort of a consortium that's formed with utilities and hyperscalers, maybe with some backstop by US government around sort of new AP1000s. And it seems like there could be some views that hyperscalers would be willing to take on some of the cost inflation risk above budgeted amounts. One of your peers kind of highlighted that they wouldn't be surprised if the first deal was announced this year. Can you maybe comment on your views? Is Southern interested? Are you in the consortium? Just, I guess, some thoughts on new nuclear in light of the learning curves of Unit 3 versus Unit 4?

Thanks. Yeah, sure. I mean, a very, very good question. And let me at the outset say, I am very excited to see all the actions that the Trump administration has taken to support the build and construction of new nuclear. I mean, I've said it, you heard me say it many times with the growth that we see in this country, I think it's going to be important that we have make available new nuclear in this country to help and support and meet this demand. i mean the trump administration i think is taking some wonderful steps on on the regulatory front uh all the conversations that doe is leading and having today about long lead times for supply chains all of these issues are matters that we clearly have to address and get our arms around all of these things can help mitigate risk associated with new construction as you know I mean, I said before, Southern Company is not at a place to make a commitment about building a new unit. We're going to continue to share the experiences that we gained from Vogel Units 3 and 4, sharing that here in this country and other places with other industries and other companies that are interested in moving forward. But I'm very thrilled and very excited about the conversations and the commitments and the actions that are being taken, particularly around doing more around AP1000s with a group of companies, I'm glad to see this action and work being taken. Once again, be clear, we're not at a place for Southern Company in terms of making that kind of decision, but it's real exciting and real positive to see the work that's being led by this administration to support the development of new nuclear construction.

Got it. Perfect. Thank you for that. And then just on Southern Power, obviously, there are a lot of opportunities there with existing tolling agreements that are going to start to roll off. I guess, have those renegotiation conversations started? But more importantly, are there any sort of conversations being had with potential hyperscalers with those assets? There seems to be more and more interest on the gas side.

I'm just kind of curious there how you're thinking about that process. sure i guess i'd say the answer is yes and yes uh i mean we're in the midst of some recontracting opportunities and we've talked about kind of where we are and what we see into the 2030s uh so yeah that work is underway uh at the same time with all the activity in the marketplace all across this country we see there could be opportunities for southern power so yes they are having those conversations to see what's possible and what's doable uh they bring i think good construction support uh and and good work uh that they have experienced all across this company with credit worthy counterparties and so yeah i mean there are conversations that they're having all across the sector to see what opportunities kind of fit our profile uh but yeah i mean let me end where i started to your question the answer are yes and yes we're doing both perfect and then and then that's good i would assume this is all upside to your seven to eight percent you're not embedding any assumption around this yeah i mean once again i mean as as as we think about upside sharp we think about strengthen and durability i mean how do we kind of add length to our growth trajectory that we've laid out and things like southern power and additional large load projects that that that we're working on all those activities uh could support some additional capital investments uh but it brings greater durability to our plan and so that's kind of how we see all these upside opportunities very helpful thank you chris uh see you soon thank you good to talk to me hope to see you soon definitely our next question comes in the line of Nick Campanella with Barclays.

Please proceed with your question.

Nick, how you doing, Matthew?

Hey, good afternoon. How are you? Good to hear from you. Thank you. So I guess you kind of answered it like what you've announced here, the incremental, you know, you see strengthening, lengthening the durability of the seven to eight CAGR. I guess just my question is just more on the load side and how you think that's affecting the reg strategy. You know, I guess when I take a step back, you committed to these stay outs, you know, late last year. And since then, you've kind of been making notable progress, both on load visibility and usage ramps. So just how is that kind of creating or changing your philosophy around your regulatory strategy when you would actually go in and file again after these next stay outs? Are you kind of, you know, I guess, ahead of plan on the load, and can that crystallize a further stay out for customers?

Yeah, Nick, let me start now to see what David wants to add. But I think the focus for us is more about rate stability. And so as we have structured these contracts with large loads to make sure they pay their full share and also making sure from collateral to making sure that from cancellation fees to minimum bills, all the terms that we're looking to contract, all of that gives us protection, but also it supports our ability to make sure that we're protecting existing customers. And so that gives us the opportunity for this kind of rate stability and freezes in Georgia through 28 and Alabama through 29. So as we do that work, all of that kind of supports, yeah, the regulatory strategy, but more importantly, it supports our commitment to rate stability to our customers and making sure that all of our customers benefit from this growth that we're experiencing. David, anything you want to add to that?

Yeah, Chris. Nick, thanks. Great question. You know, when we took this opportunity, we saw the road shaping up where these contracts were coming to fruition. The conversations we were having with these large load opportunities were really, the momentum was building, and we saw the opportunity to provide long-term stability for our customers, and it has really paid off quite well. These ramps are going exactly as we had thought. The opportunities that we came into with the DOE are further enhancing affordability and stability. Everything is just working out perfectly well with this opportunity and enhancing the benefits for customers.

Nick, did I get your question?

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. And would you say just when you've set the, you know, when you made that commitment, are you in line with the plan on your load visibility or ahead of the plan? How would you characterize that, I guess?

We're in line, and, yeah, we're always, you know, we're focused getting to the top of the range and delivering what we say we're going to deliver. I mean, that's one thing you can count on us to do. And so, yeah, we're delivering. And as we said in the opening remarks, we're delivering on what we said we were going to do. And so, as we look at this great start to the start of the year, we're excited about where we are here in 26. But as we look long-term, we feel very confident about the plan that we've laid out.

Okay. And then just my only follow-up was just as we think about wrapping in additional capital, I know you've given that sensitivity for incremental equity, but just thoughts on portfolio rotation at this time.

Yeah.

You know, Nick, it's something that we've talked about regularly. We're always looking around. We are blessed to have the cards that we've been dealt and we love the portfolio. But if there's, you know, an opportunity out there where there's a better buyer, I mean, a better owner of something, we're open to that. And if there's an opportunity for us to get in and buy something.

We're open to that as well.

It's got to be in the right circumstances, and we're always looking.

Our next question comes from the line of Julian DeMoulin-Smith with Jeffries. Please proceed with your question. Hey, Julian. What's happening?

Hey, Chris, team, guys. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

What's going on?

Let me pick it up where my pal Nick just left it off here. You've got $850 million of cumulative bill credits you guys have been talking about here. Is there a chance that that number actually gets revised higher here as you just see this contracted large load number head higher? I mean, again, that was a snapshot as of a point in time. I imagine you could actually eventually be in a better position here on that point. I think that's partially what Nick was getting after.

You know we don't have our regulators, first of all. But clearly, as we can continue to deliver these contracts in terms of how they're structured and how they provide additional benefits to existing customers and our focus on putting downward pressure on rates and bills for existing customers, we're always looking for those kind of opportunities. And so this deep focus that we have on rate stability and how we're using growth to support rate stability, clearly, as you laid out, that is the focus of ours. i mean as we talk about and we've signaled that i mean georgia power is in the middle of uh storm recovery proceedings along with fuel fuel fuel recovery processes and how those two proceedings can provide benefits and and and lower bills for customers that's kind of a major focus of ours as we think about rate stability as we do the work of signing these large load contracts as we focus on growth as we manage this company doing all we can to maintain rate stability but find opportunities to put downward pressure on rates for our customers. That is a keen principle focus of ours.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Let me follow this up real quickly here because obviously you're showing continued quarter-over-quarter success at the southern corporate level on finalizing of contracts, right, as you show in that funnel chart, right, in your slide deck. But if I look at the 4Q25 Georgia Power Large Load Economic Development Report, It shows some degree of softening in contracted commitments here. And look, I just want to needle. Is there something about Georgia versus your other states, a la maybe Alabama, where there's other states accelerating to offset Georgia? Again, there's a timing element here. Again, there's a lot of different numbers floating around, but I just want to make sure I'm understanding the core message here.

I think it's more about timing, but also I think it's the other message that we've been communicating, that we're seeing this activity migrate to the West. as we continue to see increasing activity in Alabama. Yeah, I mean, there's some churn in Georgia, but I would say the fire is still very hot in Georgia, but we're also witnessing greater activity in Alabama and Mississippi as well. But I think you can also look at that kind of pipeline number, still 75 gigawatts, that I think reflects kind of all the activity that we see. The churn is more speculative, but I think you also continue to see kind of more hyperscale activity across the territory.

Yeah, Julian, one thing to think about as well is recall the rules under which we're negotiating these contracts in Georgia and the need for these potential customers to demonstrate their commitment by posting collateral. that's really shaking a lot of the potentials out of there that are more speculative in nature and leaving Georgia Power to really work with a high-quality portfolio of potential customers in which we're choosing to contract. So I think what you're seeing really is a refinement of that and not a degradation at all. Actually, I'd maybe characterize it as a strengthening of that portfolio of anything.

A strengthening in Georgia nonetheless.

Very strong in Georgia, yes.

Got it. I'll leave it there, guys. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Our next question comes from the line of Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs. Please receive with your question.

Hey, Carly. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks so much for taking my questions. Maybe just one follow-up on the up-rate opportunities at Southern Power on the gas fleet. I know you announced some of those today, and then it seems like there's another 300 megawatts on the table. Any sense you could give us on kind of timing in evaluating that opportunity? And is that sort of the extent of the upgrade opportunity you see on the gas fleet at Southern Power?

From an upgrade perspective, that really covers the whole fleet if we work through the rest of those opportunities. In terms of timing, you know, we're working through that. You know, that could be over probably the course of the next year or so. But, yeah, we set out a plan to explore opportunities to really uprate each one of the existing generation facilities within the Southern Power Company.

Yeah, and, Carly, that construction is scheduled to begin this year in 2026, so this is kind of very immediate work that will be done.

Got it. Okay, great. Thank you for that. And then maybe just to touch base on Georgia, obviously two seats up on the PSC for election this year. Just curious if you could kind of provide your latest thoughts just on the setup in terms of the focus areas of the candidates you've heard thus far and just any views on kind of latest temperature in Georgia around affordability and development.

Yeah, so as you know, I mean, there's a – there are primary elections on May 19th. If there are runoffs, they will be June 16th. So, yeah, there's a lot of conversation. Everybody's on the campaign trail, a lot of conversation about data centers and large load customers and things like rate stability. So, I mean, all those issues are being debated on the campaign trail. And we'll see how that plays out in terms of the results of the election. I mean, one of the things that I'd just love to add in that regard, I mean, Southern Company's been around for over 100 years. And we've seen a lot of twists and turns politically, but with that experience that we've had and the ability to navigate whichever way the politics go from one side or the other, we, I think, have a tremendous history of being able to work with both parties or whoever's in office. And we feel comfortable and confident that because of the work we do across our communities and our employees live and work there, the commitments we have to the state, we're very confident about our abilities to continue to have a constructive regulatory environment, no matter how these elections turn out.

Very clear. Thank you so much for the time. Thanks, Carly.

Our next question comes from the line of Steve D'Ambrisi with RBC.

Please proceed with your question. hey steve hey chris thanks very much for taking my question just had a quick one you know there's um it seems like there's a pretty significant acceleration in uh like the pace of of how you're moving these these large loads into late stage and finalizing and you know just there's a lot of get numbers of gigawatts that are thrown around so you added two and then you've expanded finalizing in late stage to 12 just how does that interplay with the two to six gigawatts are like the sizing of the rfp that you're currently working on and just like to the extent we see i just want to make sure i level set to understand like what adding two gigawatts to the

contracted pipeline means or how much of the new rfp that that eats up and then what you know any incremental signings mean for subsequent rfps or if that makes sense well yeah no it does it speaks to kind of updates in the load forecast in terms of a result of the work that we're seeing and the demands that we're seeing uh from large loads but also i don't want to take for granted the other large manufacturing opportunities that we see across the state i mean there's a i mean as we talked about i mean there's a lot of investment there are a lot of people there are a lot of jobs there's a lot of capital a lot of interest in our states and what you see in that rfp is a reflection of that increase in load forecasting the other thing i'd say to you and we don't take it for granted and we try to communicate this very carefully but you know also just very proud of the fact as you look at our structure this vertically integrated structure that we have in terms of the orderly processes and the certainty that we can have with these bilateral negotiations in terms of understanding what these customers need and our ability to respond and to align with their needs is really say paying off delivering and that's what you see through this rfp but that's what you also see in this pipeline in this funnel that we that we speak to in terms of we highlight the work that we're doing the activity that we're doing and we're seeing uh I guess a new phrase we're using called repeat buyers. They find success and say, okay, you can deliver. Let's come back and get a little bit more. And so it gives us the reason to be very bullish about the robust activity and demand that we see in our territory.

Okay, that's really helpful. And then just a couple of the other questions were about accelerating the loads and what it means for affordability. But can you just talk a little bit about the fact that it seems like you guys are pricing these so that minimum bills cover the incremental cost to serve and so to the extent you have you know ramp rates exceeding or coming close you know exceeding minimum bills and coming close to what is actually projected by the hyperscalers what that means for customer rates and what the timeline would be to yeah let me start and then David I'll kick it to you I know there's been language out there about incremental I mean I think for us you've got to think more about full in terms of making sure they cover their full share and as a result of doing that that provides existing bit provides benefits to existing customers and that allows us to

even have consideration about things like maintaining rate stability and freezes and those kind of things and putting downward pressure on existing customers rates by having by negotiating with these customers to make sure they're covering their full cost growth provides an opportunity providing provide benefits to existing customers i mean growth is a wonderful value and benefit and contributor to what we're being able to do and what we've been able to deliver to all of our customers and particularly to our existing customers yeah and steve what you may also want to think about i think a differentiating factor in our contracts is the minimum bill that is

established within the contract and it is designed to recover all of the cost introduced into the system like chris said but we're not if you will held captive to a variable pricing methodology in order to recover those costs it's all embedded within the minimum bill so you could think about it is basically writing a call option to the network and we recover our costs through that minimum bill not through the variable pricing and making sure that the customer achieves their ramp rates it's really a very thoughtful design i think a differentiating factor around the country and it's really helping to protect our customers and provide the stability and downward pressure on

rates going forward that's great thanks very much for the time appreciate it thank you very much Our next question comes from the line of Nick Amacucci with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, Nick. Hey, great. Thanks, everybody. And yeah, perfect timing there. So actually, David, I wanted to kind of hone in on that a little bit. Just the, I guess, the attractiveness slash the ability of you guys to kind of leverage the notion of virtual power plants and just kind of leveraging all of your asset base, just being that you guys are fully integrated, and the attractiveness of that to kind of just expediting the time to power type of mechanism.

What's your question?

Yeah, if you could just kind of comment on that and just kind of frame that. Is that part of the appetite, part of the attraction for you guys just to be able to to expedite the process of time to power through that, you know, those types of mechanisms.

I think, Nick, I mean, great observation.

And you use the term, you know, vertically integrated. And I think that that really does help us greatly in terms of marketing these contracts and having these conversations. The counterparty knows exactly where all of their generation is going to come from, where their transmission infrastructure is going to come from, where the distribution infrastructure is necessary to come from. And so we've been very transparent with our customers through these conversations to make sure that they understand the cost makeup, understand how it's going to happen, when it's going to happen, and we've been able to deliver on that. So, you know, you kind of answered maybe your own question, and I point you back to the vertically integrated model under which we work and the transparent, structured regulatory processes in which we go through to establish the approval for the capital that we're able to deploy and the resources that we bring to serve these contracts.

No, that's helpful. And then if we kind of think about, too, just kind of the incremental growth, you know, kind of going forward and just the availability of, you know, just within the supply chain and turbine availability obviously you guys had you know kind of somewhat front run um you know these higher prices so as we think about it it seems like you guys are able to ring fence a lot of the costs but um just like contemplating you know the generation source and uh generation asset uh kind of going forward just how you guys are thinking about uh mid cost mitigating the um Just the pricing increases that we've seen on if it's natural gas or something else, just kind of how we can kind of get that into a rate base and feel comfortable about it.

Let me say, and we talked earlier about size and scale. And that is one of the benefits that we bring to this period of time in terms of having these relationships, having worked with OEMs, having worked with turbine suppliers for years. And so we're in line, we have our positions, and we're having ongoing conversations with suppliers to make sure they understand what our needs are. And we understand where they are and making sure that this partnership is being valuable for both parties in terms of not only delivery of units, but also in terms of pricing. And so I think in this marketplace, I do think scale matters, relationship matters, having history and experience also brings value. And I think we're bringing all of those characteristics to bear as we operate and function in this incredible transformative period.

Thanks, guys.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Wiesel with Scotiabank. Please proceed with your question.

Andrew. Hey, everybody. Good afternoon. My first question is about the Georgia ROP. Apologies if I missed it. But what would be the timing of when the process is completed and relative to that, when you'd have visibility into the company-owned resources and, therefore, when we might see the CapEx update? I think you said it could be substantial incremental investment. And then related, I think you said the in-service dates would be for 2032, 2033. Could there be appetite for something sooner in the case that demand might materialize earlier or is the process specific to that timing?

I hate to disappoint you, but you're going to hold your breath until the end of the year before we get through that process. So it's kind of a year-long process. And, of course, you know, we're not going to get ahead of our regulators and the overall process. So that's the first question. Well, the second question was...

Could there be in-service dates sooner than 2032, 2033?

Like, in other words, I know a lot of the, you know, you're pointing to new guests with those dates but there i know it's all all resource not tied to this rfp not for this one we'll go through the selection process through the rest of this year and then that will lead to a certification process that will take us pretty much through 2027 and then you know to the extent that we work through that process and and any of our proposals are selected That would lead toward, you know, initiating spend probably in 2028 with those deliveries in 32, 33. And, you know, I think we've talked about this in the past. It's probably a decent rule of thumb for maybe a gig of company-owned resources might be two plus-ish of incremental CapEx in the latter part of the planning horizon and into the next decade.

Yeah, and as you know, we're building some 10 gigawatts now that gets us through the end of this decade. And then the RFP that was certified at the end of last year, that kind of gets us into the early parts of the 2030s. So once again, that speaks to kind of the very orderly processes and planning processes that we have across our company.

Very helpful. Okay. Then just to clarify on the equity outlook, Look, first, the $26.5 billion of DOE loan guarantees, am I right that that would reduce traditional debt dollar for dollar without impacting the equity? Is that the right way to think about it? And then it looks like an incremental $300 million of equity relates to $700 million from the Southern Power gas up rates. What would be the timing of that? I think the up rates are for $29 to $31. So should I think of the equity being in the later years of the plan? And just to clarify, if you do move forward with the additional 300 megawatts, would that require additional equity or is that sort of included? Sorry, I guess that was sort of a three for one.

Yeah, that's a multi-parter. So first, yeah, the DOE loans, that definitely helps our capital markets needs, pretty much takes care of us for at least the foreseeable future. Great pricing, helps with liquidity. And at Georgia and Alabama, recall. Now, you talked about southern power upgrades. And yes, we're continuing along with that sort of 40 percent equity proportion as we grow that those capital opportunities. So that is incremental. That's what we talked about now. And, you know, keeping us in line with that 17 percent FFO to debt as we explore those other opportunities beyond the 700 million we talked about today would would likely carry about a 40 percent ongoing equity proportion. and we'll, you know, we'll explore whatever opportunities are available to us at the time and take advantage of market circumstances. But I think it's a good rule of thumb to continue to expect about 40% of incremental capital to be funded through equity.

Okay. Very, very helpful. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Our next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with Truist. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, Richard. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks. Thanks for the time. just one for me you know recognizing the progress on the southern power up rates and the 300 megawatts to go just curious about sort of the overall development arc here given that progress on the up race is it um is it sort of tracking the expectations you laid out on the 4q update and how you think about the timing for more visibility into say brownfield greenfield development there thank you yeah i think it's mean it's tracking as we expect it uh the interest is very strong on both the uh the recontracting opportunities that we have in negotiation with existing customers uh clearly from a brownfield standpoint we're in early stage considerations

of those possibilities so i think probably later in the year we'll be in a better position to give you kind of more update on kind of where all that stands uh but as we as we said before earlier we're executed on what we've highlighted and so we're moving through the plan i think very orderly and delivering as we have as we have outlined but we'll we'll keep you posted as we as we see results and as as projects uh begin to bear fruition perfect that's all for me thank you thank you our next question comes from the line of david arcaro with morgan stanley please

with you with your question.

What's up, David? Hey, thanks so much. Thanks for taking the questions. I wonder if you could speak to the supply chain and just where you stand currently in terms of access to some of the tight areas like turbans and labor, what you're seeing there?

It's, you know, in this current market, it's not anything you can take for granted. I would tell you, though, once again, I speak to the size and scale of our company and the relationships that we have with these suppliers the headline would be we're very well positioned okay but still that is not something you we can sleep on we have to continue to work it whether it's turbine whether it's transformers whether it's wire cable you name it that is something our supply chain organization continues to be very aggressive in terms of focused on we do have as we look at rfps we do have the turbans uh identified to support those rfps also you you mentioned labor uh you know we've had a long history of working with labor we have i think an incredible relationship whether it's building trades uh other organizations uh labor organizations and we continue to update them in terms of what our needs are our construction schedules and kind of the skills that will be needed. And that relationship, those relationships, I think, will bear fruit from us because you've got to expect there's going to be some tightness in the labor market. And so I think those relationships will be very, very important. I mean, I go back to doing the Vogel construction. At peak periods, we had some 10,000 laborers on the site. And all that we went through through that project, I think, further enhanced the relationship that we have with labor. We continue to be involved with it. We continue to have conversations about what's coming down the road and what our needs will be. I think those relationships will pay off very well for us in a very constrained environment. So that would be my answer there. So it's about coordination, but it's also about a lot of our experience in terms of what we've done and the work we've done, things we've built. So I feel good about where we are, but we've got to keep getting better there. We've got to keep working it.

Got it. Yeah, I appreciate that. Very helpful. And then I just wanted to maybe double check. So when would new generation be needed, I guess, as you sign more large load contracts? Like how do we think about, you know, the next round of an all-source RFP? Is there a certain level of gigawatts that you'd expect to trigger that for another round here or more just a matter of time?

So I think I mentioned earlier on the call, I mean, we're in the midst now of building 10 gigawatts that will support activities and demands through the end of the decade. The RFP that was certified in Georgia in the last year would take us through the early stages of the 2030s. And then this RFP looks more at 2032, 2033 timeframe, somewhere between another two gigawatts, six gigawatts. I mean, so we're lining up pretty well in terms of matching up with the needs that we're seeing across the economy and across the market. Alabama is also active from an RFP standpoint. So I feel pretty good about how we're matching up with the demand and load forecast to meet those Ds between now and the mid-30s.

Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Welcome.

Our next question comes from the line of Paul Fremont with Ladenburg-Thalman. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, thank you very much and a really strong result for the quarter um i i just wanted to pursue a little bit southern power um can you give us a sense of of how much of that capacity is is currently contracted today well we've set numbers up in in the mid 90s uh in terms of what's contracted uh but we know many of those contracts go through in the mid 30s but we signaled before but there may be some some early early review of some of of those contracts and our own negotiations in terms of potential re-contracting. And then there will be the opportunity to actually have new conversations about some of that capacity being made available. So it puts us in a pretty strong position as we see pricing opportunities.

But kind of, once again, I think we're in a, Southern Power is in a real strong position, recognizing the demand that's currently in the marketplace and what they're seeing around pricing and then when i look at the 400 megawatts should i assume that you've already contracted for that capacity or would would uh or is it likely that uh when it's built you will contract for it now the we've we're in you mean the the 400 the megawatts that we announced the upgrade yes the upright the 400 megawatts of upright yeah those are ongoing conversations you know fairly late stage we'll be wrapping those up in the relatively near future but those conversations are well in hand so likely by the time it's built it'll be contracted that is our clearly our expectation i mean and then i would assume sorry hello are you still there yes yes yeah you finish up your question you you would assume what oh i would assume then that part of the decision on the 300 megawatts would basically be assessed based on your ability to potentially contract that additional amount as well?

Yeah. And, you know, think about it consistent with the way we've run Southern Power over the years is we're always looking at, you know, high credit quality counterparties, typically, you know, load serving, maybe other investor-owned utilities, EMCs, munis. But yeah, we definitely do not build it and see who shows up.

And then last question for me, the price per KW seems pretty close to what it would cost to build at least a new CT, if not, you know, all that far off from a new CCGT.

So in terms of your consideration of of new build would that also uh likely revolve around your ability to uh contract the plant before before it's completed yeah for sure i mean new build or the upgrades same operating philosophy long-term strategy long-term credit counter uh credit credit were the counterparties and um it just fits in the business model that we've held to for years and would would continue to execute in that same fashion yeah we said before we don't take merchant risk and we're not in the merchant business so everything's gonna be and then most and then

most likely in your service territory that the party that you're contracting with is probably another utility like a co-op or something like that yeah that's typically the case that's right great thank you very much thank you good question and that will conclude today's question and answer session sir are there any closing remarks no again let me thank you guys for joining us and we're excited about the growth we're experiencing we're excited about the operations our company i'll end where i started uh we believe we have a bright future ahead and so thank you for joining us today on this first quarter earnings call everybody stay safe have a good day.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the Southern Company first quarter 2026 earnings call. You may now disconnect.