Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, The Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States and a leading wholesale energy provider in the Southeast. The company operates through multiple segments, including Regulated Electric, Gas Distribution Operations, Gas Pipeline Investments, Wholesale ...Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, The Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States and a leading wholesale energy provider in the Southeast. The company operates through multiple segments, including Regulated Electric, Gas Distribution Operations, Gas Pipeline Investments, Wholesale Gas Services, and Gas Marketing Services. Its generating portfolio is diverse, comprising 30 hydroelectric, 24 fossil fuel, three nuclear, 13 combined cycle/cogeneration, 45 solar, 15 wind, one fuel cell, and four battery storage facilities. In natural gas infrastructure, Southern Company builds, operates, and maintains 76,289 miles of pipelines and 14 storage facilities with a total capacity of 157 billion cubic feet, serving residential, commercial, and industrial clients. The company serves approximately 8.7 million electric and gas utility customers in total, with 9 million customers across its family of companies. Financially, Southern Company reported a market capitalization of about $106.6 billion, with a trailing twelve-month revenue per share of $26.54 and a net profit margin of 15.4%. The company maintains a strong dividend policy with a yield of 3.2% and a payout ratio of 66.6%. As of the latest data, it employs about 29,800 full-time employees. Under the leadership of Chairman, President, and CEO Chris Womack, who has over 35 years of experience in the energy sector, Southern Company is committed to innovation, sustainability, and delivering value to its customers and shareholders. The company also provides digital wireless communications and fiber optics services, further diversifying its business. With a focus on clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy, Southern Company continues to invest in modernization and renewable energy projects to meet future energy demands.
Operator: Good afternoon. My name is Christine, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to The Southern Company's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Gregg MacLeod, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Gregg MacLeod: Thank you, Christine. Good afternoon, and welcome to Southern Company's second quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Christopher C. Womack, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Company and David P. Poroch, chief financial officer. Let me remind you that we will make forward-looking statements today in addition to providing historical information. Various important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Including those discussed in our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and subsequent securities filings. In addition, we will present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measure are included in the financial information we released this morning as well as the slides for this conference call. Which are both available on our Investor Relations website at investor.southerncompany.com. At this time, I will turn the call over to Christopher C. Womack.
Christopher C. Womack: Thank you, Greg. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for joining us for today's update. As you can see from the materials that were released this morning, Southern Company continues to perform exceptionally well which supports a very bright future. We reported strong adjusted earnings results for the second quarter with each of our businesses contributing to performance meaningfully above the estimate we provided last quarter. The extraordinary economic development momentum and demand for power across our Southeast region we have seen for the past several years continues particularly from data centers and other large load customers and our utilities are capturing this growth in a way that meaningfully benefits the customers and communities we are privileged to serve and support our long-term outlook. In just the last quarter, there were three projects across the state of Alabama, Alabama Power added approximately 3 GW, while Georgia Power signed a 3.2 GW 25-year contract for electric service with OpenAI at its recently announced site near Savannah, Georgia. This site, which is expected to take electric service in phases beginning in 2028 features 1 GW of flexible demand response helping to support reliable energy for all customers when demand is highest. Combined, these four projects representing 6 GW of newly contracted customer load along with agreements previously signed brings our total contract to large load agreements …
