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Building Customer Satisfaction
In a 1997 survey of utility customers, we ranked first in rate options. One of our options-real-time pricing
(RTP)-gained its 1,000th customer with Purina Mills, a supplier of livestock feed. RTP gives large customers
advance notice of hourly costs of electricity. They then have the option to adjust their usage accordingly.
The largest electricity users in the United States rate us high in customer satisfaction. Our traditional
business subsidiaries-Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power, and Savannah Electric- rank as
five of the top seven electric utilities in terms of customer satisfaction.
That's not surprising, given our overall customer satisfaction rating of 91 percent. We continue to work toward
better understanding our customers.
Producing Low-Cost Electricity
We produce electricity that costs our customers 19 percent below the national average for investor-owned
utilities.
Driving costs down helps keep us strong. In 1994, we set a goal to reduce costs
to our customers by $780 million by 2003. By year-end 1997, we were more than a third of the way there. We're
also on target to get the total per kilowatt-hour cost of our fossil and hydro generation below 3 cents
by 2000.
Our cost leadership extends to our nuclear generation facilities. According to
the Nuclear Energy Institute, our Plant Vogtle is among the lowest-cost nuclear plants. Its variable per
kilowatt-hour production cost is 1.18 cents, compared with the latest available national average of
1.91 cents.
Leading to Growth
High satisfaction and low costs appeal not only to current customers, but to new customers as well.
That includes new companies moving into our traditional service area. For example, we helped bring Mercedes-Benz
to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The car manufacturer began production at its new plant in 1997 and now has plans to
increase production.
In Georgia, new large customers make a one-time choice of their electricity provider.
They've been doing that for more than 20 years. And we've been the most successful competitor.
Our wholesale business-known as Southern Wholesale Energy-also aggressively competes for customers. With more than 4,000
megawatts currently under contract, this portion of our business is one of the biggest and most successful
of its kind.
Maintaining Our Strength
Our traditional business is large and efficient.
We have a strong financial position. We also have marketing expertise and a strong brand name. We're in a great location, one that grows faster than the rest of the United
States. We're ranked No. 1 nationally in power production, capacity, sales, and electric revenues. And, for
three of the past four years, Fortune magazine has listed us as the most admired U.S. electric utility.
Our industry continues to change. More competition is coming. We want to keep our traditional business strong
through customer retention and aggressive marketing for new customers.
Our strategy is to continue driving customer satisfaction up and costs down. We believe doing that will help us maintain and increase our
market share.
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