Southern Co's Georgia Power Says Its Base Electric Rates To Remain Flat Until 2019

Southern Co

subsidiary, Georgia Power, disclosed that its base electric rates would remain flat until the year 2019. The announcement came on the heels of the vote by the Georgia Public Service Commission members on an agreement linked to the pending merger of Southern Company and AGL Resources. Southern Company's subsidiary indicated that the three-year rate guarantee was apart from a net reduction of about $2.50 in the overall monthly bill for the residential customer fueled by a 14% drop in the fuel rate. The company stated that the reduction came into effect in January. The company's last base electric rate case was in the year 2013 and integrated the costs of investments in infrastructure that was required to maintain high levels of reliability and superior customer service. Southern Company's subsidiary said that investments in place today were the result of a process that included new environmental controls on its generation fleet and enhancements in the transmission and distribution network. That included smart grid technologies to limit the frequency and duration of power outages. Interestingly, the company's total retail price of 9.22 cents per kilowatt-hour last year was over 14% below the national average. Shares of the company traded down by 0.10% on Thursday.