Competitive energy business – linking assets with trading and marketing to provide energy to wholesale customers who can choose their suppliers based on price, reliability, capacity and other market needs.

Earnings as reported – includes items – such as gains on asset sales, write downs of assets and work force reductions – not related to normal day-to-day business activities.

Earnings from operations – excludes items – such as gains on asset sales, write downs of assets and work force reductions – not related to normal day-to-day business activities.

Earnings per share – total net earnings divided by the average number of shares of common stock outstanding.

Energy trading and marketing – the buying and selling of energy according to market needs without the restriction of defined service areas.

Generating capacity – the amount of energy we can produce using all of our power generation facilities.

Independent power producer – builds and/or owns and operates generating facilities without any geographic or service area restrictions or relationships to traditional regulated utilities.

International business – the part of our business that develops, builds, owns and operates utilities and power production and delivery systems outside the United States.

North American business – the part of our business that markets energy and develops, builds, owns, and operates power generation facilities in the United States outside our regulated business in the Southeast.

Ordinary Average Joe Electric Utility – NOT Southern Company.

Payout ratio – the percentage of earnings that is paid to shareholders in the form of dividends.

Regulated business – the part of our business that generates, transmits and distributes electricity to commercial, industrial and residential customers in most of Alabama and Georgia, the Florida panhandle and southeastern Mississippi.

Retail markets – markets in which energy is directly sold and delivered to the ultimate end users of that energy.

Total return to shareholders – the sum of the change in market price for a share of common stock and the dividend.

Wholesale customers – energy marketers, electric and gas utilities, municipal utilities, industrials, other energy producers and generators, national companies and other large energy users.

Wholesale markets – markets in which relatively large amounts of energy are sold to customers who may then sell it in retail markets or – in the case of large industrial customers – use it.