Dean Electric

Southern Company is a regional energy company with more than 40,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Southeast. It is one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States. The company supplies energy to a 120,000-square-mile service territory throughout most of Georgia and Alabama, southeastern Mississippi and the panhandle region of Florida. It is ranked in the top 200 in the FORTUNE 500 listing of the largest United States corporations. Southern Company owns five regulated retail electric utilities: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. It also owns Southern Nuclear and Southern Company Gas. David M. Ratcliffe has been the chief executive officer of Southern Company for more than two years. He has been with the utility company for over 35 years. Ratcliffe attended Valdosta State University. The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SO. It is headquartered in Atlanta.

Oglethorpe Power Corporation, located in Tucker, Ga., is a nonprofit power supply cooperative that serves 39 of Georgia's 42 Electric Membership Corporations. In turn, the EMCs provide retail electric service to millions of residents throughout the state. OPC's primary mission is to provide the power necessary to meet the needs of the 39 co-op member systems. The corporation makes use of a portfolio of power resources, including fossil, nuclear, coal and hydro facilities, as well as long-term and short-term contracts. In 1997, with the potential of electric deregulation in Georgia, OPC divided into three specialized companies, OPC, Georgia System Operations Corporation and Georgia Transmission Corporation. The organization operates primarily as a power generating company. GSOC and GTC are subsidiaries of OPC.