The Two Conflicting Stories of Alabama Power

At first glance, Alabama Power’s autumn communications strategy appears to be a masterclass in community engagement. As temperatures drop, the utility has rolled out a clever, Halloween-themed campaign to help its customers save money, as detailed in reports like Alabama Power provides tips to dispel scary energy-savings myths during spooky season and beyond. We’re told to beware of “energy vampires”—those electronics that silently drain power while idle. We’re warned that turning off a heating unit entirely is a “frightening” mistake that forces the system to work twice as hard, like reanimating Frankenstein’s monster.

It’s all very folksy and helpful. The company is even leaning into Bat Week, installing bat houses to protect a crucial part of the local ecosystem. On the surface, the message is one of conservation, efficiency, and environmental stewardship. Alabama Power presents itself as a partner, helping you pinch pennies and protect local wildlife. It’s a compelling narrative.

The problem is, it’s only half the story. And I suspect it’s the less important half. While one arm of the company is teaching customers how to trim a few dollars from their monthly bill, the other is executing a strategy of massive expansion, fueled by record profits and a clear-eyed bet on a future of dramatically increased energy consumption. The discrepancy isn't subtle; it's a chasm.

The Narrative vs. The Numbers

The public-facing materials are filled with tips that, while technically sound, operate at the margins of a household budget. Unplugging your toaster and using a slow cooker are not insignificant actions, but they exist in a completely different universe from the numbers presented in the quarterly earnings report of Alabama Power’s parent, Southern Company.

Let’s put this in perspective. Southern Company just posted a third-quarter profit of $1.7 billion, up from $1.5 billion the previous year, on revenue that hit $7.8 billion. Its stock is trading near a 52-week high. This is not the financial profile of a company whose future depends on its customers using less of its product. I’ve looked at hundreds of these filings, and the disconnect between public conservation messaging and strategic capital allocation is rarely this stark.

The company's advice to "scare away the wicked spirits of increased power bills" feels almost quaint when juxtaposed with its own financial reality. The real story isn’t found in Halloween-themed PDFs; it’s in the bond offerings and investor calls. Alabama Power recently sold $500 million in bonds to help finance its $622 million acquisition of the Lindsay Hill gas-fired power plant. This isn’t a move a company makes when it anticipates a decline in demand. It’s the opposite. It’s a utility arming itself for a surge.

This is the core analytical puzzle. Why invest so much in a public relations campaign centered on energy reduction while simultaneously making billion-dollar bets on energy growth? Are these two strategies in conflict, or is one merely providing cover for the other?

The energy-saving tips are like a casino handing out free drink coupons. It’s a gesture of goodwill that makes the customer feel valued and a little smarter, but it does absolutely nothing to alter the fundamental business model of the house. The casino is still built to win, and the utility is still built to sell power. The real question is, to whom?

Deconstructing the Growth Engine

The answer is hiding in plain sight within Southern Company’s forward-looking statements. The utility has identified a pipeline of more than 50 gigawatts of new large-scale load additions expected by the mid-2030s. In the last quarter alone, it signed contracts for over 2 gigawatts of new demand in Alabama and Georgia, primarily from data centers and large manufacturers. The company is forecasting annual electric sales growth of 8% through 2029—to be more exact, an 8% compound annual growth rate, a staggering figure for a mature utility.

This isn’t about residential customers forgetting to unplug a coffee maker. This is about a fundamental economic shift in the Southeast. The region is becoming a hub for energy-intensive industries, and Southern Company is positioning itself as the sole provider. The $30 billion in capital projects planned through 2027 (a figure that includes new gas units and battery storage facilities) isn’t for maintaining the current grid; it’s for building the grid of a much larger future.

Consider the Valleydale Road project. On the surface, it’s a local traffic story about lane closures, such as the recent Lane closures on Valleydale Road between now and Nov. 28 for utility relocation. But look closer. It’s a 3.5-mile, multi-decade, $55 million infrastructure overhaul that requires Alabama Power to spend up to three years and $10 million just to relocate its own lines. This is the granular, on-the-ground reality of preparing for growth. You don't undertake that kind of disruptive, expensive work unless you're anticipating a significant, long-term increase in demand along that corridor.

So the Halloween tips, the bat houses, the friendly advice—it all starts to look less like a corporate conservation ethos and more like a sophisticated customer management strategy. When you are planning for an 8% annual increase in electricity sales, you know that bills, on average, are going to go up. You also know that you’ll need regulatory approval for rate adjustments to pay for the new power plants and grid upgrades.

What better way to soften that reality than by preemptively offering tools and tips that give customers a sense of control? By demonstrating a commitment to helping them save, the company builds a reservoir of goodwill. It’s a brilliant piece of financial and public relations jujitsu: frame the narrative around the consumer’s ability to save, while the corporate strategy focuses entirely on systemic growth.

The Signal in the Noise

Let’s be clear. The public-facing conservation campaign isn’t a lie, but it is a distraction. It focuses our attention on the micro—the phantom load from a television—while the company's real business unfolds at the macro level of gigawatts and billions in capital expenditure. The bat houses are a lovely gesture, but the new gas-fired power plants define the company’s actual environmental and economic footprint.

My analysis suggests the energy-saving tips are a form of bill management PR, designed to mitigate customer blowback from the inevitable price pressures that come with massive infrastructure investment. It’s a rational, and likely effective, strategy. But consumers and investors should not confuse the marketing with the mission. The mission isn’t to help you use less power. The mission is to profitably power the entire Southeast’s industrial and digital expansion. Everything else is just noise.