Southern Company (SoCo), a leading energy provider in the United States, has established itself through a commitment to reliability and innovation in generation, transmission and wholesale energy. As a parent company to several prominent electric companies, including Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Mississippi Power, it plays a crucial role in delivering electricity to millions of homes, businesses and industries across the Southeast.
As the energy landscape evolves, interconnection queue trends provide a glimpse into the region’s commitment to a more sustainable and resilient energy future. Interconnection queues, which track pending and approved power projects waiting to connect to the grid, offer insights into SoCo’s future capacity, technology advancements and renewable integration. As part of Enverus Project Tracking Analytics, we meticulously review project development processes within various utility and interconnection queues, ensuring a comprehensive project analysis.
Overall capacity growth in SoCo since 2016
Over the past 8 years, the SoCo utility queue has undergone a dramatic shift. From 2008 through 2015, 22,031 MWs were proposed in the interconnection queue. From those queue positions, 6,519 MW ultimately became operational, a success rate under 30%. Most of that development was proposed in 2010; the Vogtle Nuclear Plant was added to the queue that year and it accounts for 4,658 of the 5,589 currently operating MWs stemming from queue positions in that year.
In 2016, however, the total proposed capacity that entered the queue jumped to 11,045 MW, more capacity than the previous five years combined. And since then, the proposed capacity entering the queue each year has consistently stayed close to that level or above it.
This trend extends to the actual operating capacity realized by post-2016 queue positions as well. For queue positions dated 2016 and later, 12,221 MW of now-operating capacity has been added to the queue, an average of 1,358 MW per year. Those values are significantly up from 2008-2015, when an average of 815 MW now-operating capacity were added per year. That value is also not accounting for the fact that some post-2016 queue positions are still in development but will eventually get built, pushing those numbers even higher.
Energy mix shifts towards renewables
When we turn our attention beyond the overall capacity numbers, to the specific energy mix being developed in SoCo, a complicated picture emerges. Since 2016, solar and storage proposals have been flooding the queue, with solar making up 61% of all new proposed capacity and storage another 23%. However, these projects are struggling to reach completion, and the SoCo energy mix remains heavy on traditional fuel sources like gas and coal.
Figures 3.1 and 3.2- Enverus P&R Project Tracking: Operating capacity with 2008-2015 queue dates, by project type (left); Operating capacity with 2016-2024 queue dates, by project type (right).
Figures 4.1-4.3- Enverus P&R Project Tracking: Combined gas, coal and nuclear capacity with 2016-2024 queue dates, by status (left); Solar capacity with 2016-2024 queue dates, by status (center); Storage capacity with 2016-2024 queue dates, by status (right)
How does the queue align with SOCO’s integrated resource plans
SoCo’s focus on the clean energy transition is not only evident via the interconnection queue, but also the goals set forth via the most recent integrated resource plans (IRPs) from Alabama Power (2023 IRP), Georgia Power (2023 IRP) and Mississippi Power (2021 IRP). These plans outline each company’s goals for their energy mix through 2044.
Those three companies have specified that they plan to transition in particular to more natural gas, solar, and energy storage over the next 20 years in an effort to significantly reduce their reliance on coal.
The queue does not seem to align with the plans laid out in these IRPs. For example, in the SoCo queue, there are 24,809 MW of planned solar projects, whereas the IRPs indicate plans to introduce only 12,178 MW of solar and solar + storage by 2044. This likely reflects a clogged queue, with far more projects in the queue than could feasibly be built.
Looking to the future
What can these trends tell us about the future of the SoCo energy landscape?
In examining the SoCo interconnection queue, a few noteworthy trends emerge. There plainly exists a will to build more sustainable capacity in the southeast, as evidenced by the continuing prevalence of solar and storage in the queue. Figure 7 above lays out a vision for a SoCo interconnection brimming with solar and battery power in the next six years. If all the projects currently in development were to become operational, by 2030 an astounding 60% of SoCo’s energy mix would be solar and storage.
However, these projects have thus far struggled to get built at the same rate as gas, coal and nuclear projects. If current trends hold around solar and storage projects, the mix is likely to remain heavy on those conventional technologies, and we may see even more natural gas proposals, as the utility embraces a more balanced approach to maintaining energy diversity amidst the ongoing energy transition.
To see this data in action or to analyze other utilities, submit a data request to view Enverus P&R Project Tracking Analytics. Using Enverus PRISM® historical and future queue tracking, analysts can get a comprehensive understanding of utility and interconnection queue trends. Simplify your power asset planning and analysis with the most extensive power project, grid infrastructure, IRP, parcel, LMP and economics data available.
