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Creating New Opportunities
Those areas include the entire United States. With energy marketing offices in seven cities in five states, we
are building a national presence. One of our goals is to be among the top five energy marketers in the United
States.
To help meet that goal, we created Southern Company Energy Marketing. The new company is a joint venture
with Vastar Resources Inc., one of the largest independent oil and gas producers in the country. Customers
told us they want to buy electricity and natural gas from one source. And now we can be that source.
Increasing Our Share
An increasing number of states are opening or making plans to open their markets to competition.
As a result, marketing both electricity and natural gas continues to grow in significance. We sold more than
75 million megawatt-hours of electricity through our energy marketing subsidiary in 1997. That compares with
3.7 million megawatt-hours in 1996. At the same time, our share of the market grew to more than 6 percent.
We're working to sell and supply energy nationwide. We want to compete wherever we can profitably supply energy and
related services. Our targets are other marketers, utilities, cooperatives and municipal utilities,
industrial customers, and large national companies.
Shining with Expertise
Outside our traditional business, our North American strategy is more than energy marketing. It is also strategic
asset ownership.
Those assets include our Birchwood Power Facility in Virginia, our State Line plant just
across the Indiana border from Chicago, and another facility in Mobile, Alabama.
The independent power business rewards the efficient operation of generating plants. And that's where the expertise acquired in our
traditional business shines.
Continuing to Emerge
With energy marketing and strategic asset ownership, we're just emerging. We will continue to seek and evaluate
assets that are consistent with our strategy. And that are accretive to our earnings. We are among the leaders
in both natural gas and electricity marketing. And we're aiming to improve our position in both categories.
We're also just emerging in the wireless telecommunications market.
That's where Southern LINC continues to exceed
expectations. Our digital wireless service combines two-way radio, cellular, paging, and data services in a
single hand-held or installed device. We initially developed the service to meet needs within our own
company. Now customers range from ambulance services and police departments to contracting and construction
companies. They're using more than 60,000 of our Southern LINC units throughout the Southeast.
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