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Southern Company Town Hall Webcast – Thursday, April 16, 2020 Rough Transcript

Operator: Welcome to the Southern Company town hall webcast on April 16th, 2020. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If you would like to ask a question via the web interface, simply type your question in the ask a question box and click send. If any participant has difficulty hearing the presentation, please submit your question via the same tool. I will now hand the presentation over to Tom Fanning, chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company. Please go ahead, sir. Tom Fanning: Welcome, everybody, to this virtual town hall. I think in times like this, I love that phrase, communicate relentlessly. I don't think there's more we can do than keeping each other informed. And I think through the thought leadership of folks like Chris Womack and others, we decided this format may prove to be beneficial to us all. And to those of you who have not been on a call like this, this is going to feel like something we do about every two weeks. In fact, during the coronavirus, we've been doing it for a while every day, and then maybe three times a week. Now we're doing it about twice a week. This will feel like a Southern Company Management Council call with a little bit of an expanded universe. I know we have people all over the system listening, so let me just fill you in, roughly, on who's on the Southern Company Management Council. President and CEO of Power is Mark Crosswhite. Power will be Paul Bowers. Anthony Wilson, . Kim Greene, our gas companies. Stan Connally, our EVP of operations. Steve Kuczynski, our president of Southern Nuclear. Chris Womack, president of external. Chief legal counsel, Jim Kerr. Mark Lantrip. He runs a whole broad range of things, including Southern Power, PowerSecure, a lot of our marketing and creative ideas. Drew Evans, of course, our CFO. Our three-headed monster of human resources, Sloane Evans, James Garvie, Jeff Peoples. Particular focus on Washington DC and all the activity going on there. Bryan Anderson's on the phone. And look, there's others on the phone as well. So we're happy to first give a pretty quick overview as to what's going on in the system. And then what I want to do is open the line up for questions. And we've already received several of them via email. But anything that comes to mind, I'd love to hear what's on your mind. So without further ado, let me go ahead and get going. This is a challenging time, when you consider the videos we've done on the coronavirus. We've been able to keep great momentum on Vogtle 3 and 4. We'll give you the latest and greatest there. And then we had these storms that really started in Texas and Arkansas and Louisiana and came barreling through the Southeast and up the Eastern Coast. Our guys did a terrific job managing that crisis. And I think we got the power on in a spectacular manner. So thanks for all them. And we'll get some updates on how that went, plus any recent activities from our regulators and policy makers. Before we get into all of that, though, please understand that everything we do is predicated with safety. And in fact, every call that we do as a Management Council begins with a report on safety and also a report on representation. So I'm going to start this call off like all the others and ask Stan Connally to kick us off with some safety information. Stan? Stan Connally: Great, Tom. Thank you. And look, thanks to everybody out there listening. Safety is our first value under our values. And I can assure you all, not only by the conversations I've been in, but by watching your actions, I can tell safety first has been at the forefront of how you've dealt with everything we've dealt with over the last few weeks. Look, this is probably the most broad safety message or briefing I've ever done. I mean, we've got people scattered out all over the country, scattered out in homes and places of business, where people are still working at our company locations. And so the diversity of the safety message is pretty complex. But I just thought today, maybe quickly, I'd get three quick things. I think that when things get complex, it's best to keep things simple. And I got

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three safety messages I wanted to just share with this group as we think about what we're going through and what we're going to continue to go through. The first one-- and I know in many ways, many folks in our company are working alone, whether at your home, or you're kind of doing remote work, or you're a lone worker. I think it's always important for us to remember being mindful of our individual surroundings, and recognizing that the person most responsible for your safety is you, the individual. And I would just ask that you don't let safety wane in your daily work planning, whether you're coming to a business location or you're working from home. Please take some time every day to individually think about safety and own that. The second one-- and I think this is tough right now, but y'all have done a great job as a company maintaining a team environment, even as we've gone through what we've gone through in the last few weeks. And I think it's just important that we not forget being each other's brother and sister when it comes to safety, is still an important part of our safety success. Now that's different in how we pull that off. Sometimes it might take a phone call, or a safety briefing on a radio, or doing it on a conference call. Whatever it is, we just need to not forget that the team environment that we work in is one of the key ingredients to our safety success. And just ask that everybody remain their brother and sister's keeper as we work our way through this. And the last one, it means a lot to me over my career. And I think it's more important now than ever before. And that is, be here now. We at the Management Council have talked about the many distractions that our team has in front of them right now. It's clearly the physical distractions and the third party or the environmental distractions. But there's mental distractions too. And we all manage that very differently. And I think we have to recognize that. But if we can find a way to simply be here now, focusing on the here and now when it comes to safety. I've seen us rise to the occasion in a lot of tough times in Southern Company. Storms, outages, you name it. We had one of those this week. And our team always rises to the challenge when it comes to those kinds of things. And I think it's because we can find a way to be in the moment and be here now. And I would tell you, now, more than ever, from a safety perspective, being here now is a key ingredient. So take personal responsibility, be each other's brothers' and sisters' keeper, and be here now. I think if we can maintain those principles that may feel old in some ways, but they're core of what we do on safety, we'll all get home to our families every day and through the end of this pandemic. Thanks for what you're all doing. Please stay focused on safety. It will remain, always, our first value. Tom, turn it back to you. Tom Fanning: Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, bud. Hey, let me-- keeping everybody healthy and safe, while continuing to provide value and reliability and low prices to customers, has always been our top priority. And we all have to work hard on doing everything we can to stop this virus as best we can. What I'd like to do now, just to follow the safety speech, is to ask Sloane to give us an update on what the latest statistics are with respect to the spread of the virus in our company. Sloane? Sloane Drake: Sure. Thanks, Tom. So currently, we have 91 confirmed cases. 10 of those have since recovered and returned to work. And let me just quickly give you an overview of what that looks like by each operating company. So for , there are 7 confirmed cases. 1 has recovered. For , 5 confirmed cases. 4 have recovered. At PowerSecure, there are 4 confirmed cases. 1 has since recovered and returned to work. For SCS, it was 9 cases. 1 has returned. For operations team, there are 4 confirmed cases. For Southern Gas, there are 7, and 1 has returned to work. Southern Power, no confirmed cases. For Vogtle 3 and 4, there are 52 confirmed cases. And for Southern Nuclear fleet, 3 confirmed cases, and 2 have returned to work. Tom Fanning: Hey, Sloane, give it to us by location, if you could. If you could break it down simply? Sloane Drake: Sure. Yeah. So for Alabama, we have 1 in Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Wilsonville. 2 in Jasper, and 2 in Alabama. For Georgia Power-- 2 in Alabama-- --we had 1-- 2 in--

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Tom Fanning: You said 2 in Alabama? Yeah. Okay, in Birmingham. Sloane Drake: For Georgia Power, we had 1 in [inaudible], at our plant, 1 in Sandy Springs, and 3 at Forest Park. For PowerSecure, 2 in Durham, North Carolina, 1 in Hayden, Alabama, and 1 in Youngsville, North Carolina. For Southern Company Services, we have 5 in Alabama, and 4 in . For operations, 1 in Birmingham, and 4 in Ackerman, Mississippi, our Red Hills plant. For , we have 1 in Alabama, 1 in Beach, 1 in Savannah, Georgia, 1 in Conyers, 1 in Macon, 1 in Joliet, , and 1 in Newport News, Virginia. Vogtle 3 and 4, they're all in Augusta. And 4, the Fleet, they are in Dothan and in Birmingham. Tom Fanning: That's awesome. Thank you. Sloane, anything else you want to offer up? Sloane Drake: No, I think that's' good. Thank you. Tom Fanning: Thank you, ma'am. All right. So I think I touched on this in one of my videos, but I think it's really important. Normally, we run the system, design the system, to this notion of reliability. That is, given that not all our system operates perfectly all the time, we evaluate the cost of outages, whether it's transmission, or generation, or whatever, and we design the system to handle the normal vagaries of our operation under normal conditions. Within the past year or so, we've been talking not so much about reliability, but about the notion of resilience. In other words, how does our system operate under abnormal conditions? And we've talked about that in the guise of a cyber attack or a hurricane. Well certainly, the coronavirus is a great example of an abnormal condition. And when you look at the operation of our system, if you look at just kind of those data points, we have been doing terrific. And I want to commend everybody that just is involved in making, moving, and selling energy to the benefit of the communities that we're privileged to serve throughout the Southeast and around the . The gas company and the electric companies are doing fabulous. So fantastic stuff. Doing all that, we're doing it with 16,000 people that are working remotely. And you all should know that we've been essentially adopting the guidance of the CDC, the communicable disease center. And they're located, headquartered in Atlanta. And so we're adopting those work practices as our standard. And I think we've been doing great. The other thing that I'm particularly proud of is that we have enlisted the advice of medical experts and public health officials. And even at the highest levels of government, Health and Human Services, we've had the director of health there join us. And I think we've been doing a great job. The thing I would just ask about people is to continue this notion of good hygiene, washing your hands, just the blocking and tackling like that, and practicing social distance and really respecting the space of others. And of course, if you do feel a little bit odd, not only just sick, but not yourself, make it your personal responsibility to sequester yourself. Let people know. And we follow a pretty conservative regime of contacting coworkers and making sure that we do, as Stan mentioned, watch after our brother and sister. It's not just industrial safety, it's this virus situation, that we have to continue to do that. And so we will. But here's the thing. As you just heard Sloane go through the data points that she did. I think it's pretty encouraging that the steps we're taking have had a positive impact. And one other thing I just wanted to note, underline, what Sloane said. Some of the people who have contracted the virus have already returned to work. And thank goodness, we have had no fatalities. I lead twice a week the national response to the coronavirus through my chairmanship of the ESCC. That's the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council. And I can tell you, folks like Con Ed, of New York, have had many fatalities. So thank goodness, and let's continue to stay with it. I have mentioned before kind of the other factors that I bet everybody watches. And that's the stock market. Boy oh boy, it's been volatile. I'm actually pretty happy with the way Southern Company has traded. I actually think we should be a pretty good safe harbor. We are a reasonably low risk company, strong financial position. Recent evidence of that, we sold about a billion dollars of debt securities. We don't have an equity need until about 2023 or '24. And really pretty good. Last year, 2019, we were about the top. I think we were the top performer in terms of stock price performance. Everybody's had their challenges this year. But son of a gun, I think we're hanging in there. And I think we still appeal to people that need a safe harbor during turbulent times. Beyond just the financials of the company, I'm really proud of the way we kind of give the context, the broader reach to the communities that we serve. We said now-- over 100 years ago, one of our founders said something like, "We

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want to make sure that the communities are better off because we're there. And we want to be citizens wherever we serve." If you take together the electric companies and the gas companies making direct contributions, and also add to that the contributions of our foundations, we're approaching about $10 million of contributions to the communities we serve. So we have done that. And we will continue to do our part to make sure that the community is in fact better off because we're there. And I don't know whether you follow the news or not. Sometimes it's depressing. And I think I want you guys to hear me loud and clear. When I talk about what's in-house, I'm lusty. I owe it to the shareholders to be very interested in making, moving, and selling energy and doing it safely and providing an adequate return. But I am also, in addition to those whats, very mindful of the house. And these are extreme circumstances. And I don't think many of us are used to being sequestered in our home. And having to deal with all these other issues. It's one thing, I used to make jokes about vacation. It's great to come back to work and rest up a bit. Son of a gun, we're at home now. We've got kids around us - many of us do - or family members with special circumstances. There's a whole lot that we have to contribute as an individual and as a human being. These are not easy times. And so mentally, socially, I know people are feeling some stress. I appreciate that. And reach out to friends and family, and let's get through these times together. I think we're still going to be in the woods for a while now. I know in Georgia, they're projecting that the virus will peak still about two weeks away. But those estimates are so fluid. The fun thing is, many of you may have heard that I've been appointed-- President Trump, in fact, called out Southern Company and Alabama Power Company, Mark Crosswhite and me, to join him in an effort to think about how to restart America. We're also undertaking an effort at the Business Roundtable. That's like 100 of the top CEOs in America. We're starting to think about the steps we're going to take to get back to normal. The US Chamber of Commerce, NAM, others, are all kind of focused on, so what does this mean, and how will our lives change forever? It's a fascinating concept to think about. Given how well our system has run, and given, I think, the social stresses that this nation has seen, I think as 9/11 totally impacted transportation for so many people for probably the rest of our lives, I think this coronavirus, this pandemic, may impact kind of our social mores, the way we work, the way we think about our own personal space. I can't give you any answers right now, but I can tell you that we are focused on it, and we will continue to kind of change on the run. This notion of being resilient also applies to our business model and the way we undertake our work. And we will do that. One of the challenges that we have seen recently is a loss of revenue. And it shouldn't surprise anybody. But that the hardest hit of our sales factors has been the commercial sector. Second probably behind that would be the industrial sector. And then third, actually, we've seen an uptick, not surprisingly, in the residential sector. But overall, that produces a loss in revenue. If you think back to 2008 and 2009, we had a pretty significant loss of revenue then. We tightened our belts, as the rest of America did, and responded to those cost reductions-- to the revenue reductions with cost reductions. And I can tell you right now that I think we have the capacity to be able to handle that and still meet our financial goals. One of the things I know that people worry about is this idea of layoffs, or early outs, or what have you. Let me be perfectly clear that our intention is to do this without layoffs and without furloughs. And so as a priority, I think we have the capability to preserve the financial condition of this company and to preserve people's jobs. But I'm going to need your help to be creative to take expenses down. We are putting on a very tight clamp on hiring new people. I am asking each of the CEOs of our various business units to personally approve any increases in personnel. You would probably expect those to see in the very critical job that's derived from customer service. So anyway, that's kind of a summary of that. And I told you guys this is going to be like a Management Council call. I'm talking way more than I normally would on a Management Council call. But I thought it was important to kind of set the stage for everybody on this communication. What I'd like to do now is just turn to a couple topics. And I'll turn to my teammates on Management Council to give us some updates. First of all, plant Vogtle 3 and 4. The nuclear expansion continues. When I think about just the tremendous effort of the people there. Thousands of people on that site, led by Steve Kuczynski, and Glen Schick, and Aaron Abramovitz, and a host of others. They continue to fight through this project and the challenges it has on a normal basis. When you consider fighting through the challenges now in a coronavirus environment, I can't think of a better group of

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people to fight that fight with. We've had a lot of great progress recently. Steve Kuczynski, if you could jump on and just give everybody a quick summary as to what you've been able to do at this site recently. Steve? Steve Kuczynski: Sure, Tom. So like the rest of the system, we focused on prevention and mitigation activities. We do have unique challenges there, with about 9,000 people still on-site even after expensive telecommuting. That puts a high density in a small footprint. And certainly some of the work that we do just does not lend itself to the best types of social distancing. So we just have unique challenges there. But the goal from the start was to protect our workforce and make it advantageous to stay in the area, if in fact [inaudible] the COVID disease. As we see, most people are able to recover at home, just basic care. And it's essentially what we're seeing, so. Part of that activity was setting up our medical village. I had great support from the system. So we essentially have our own urgent care there. We encourage anyone that's not feeling well at all to go to the urgent care. And they get treated, and we follow up until those individuals are ready to come back to work. So we are in that phase too, starting to see people come back to work. Sloane already said we have about 52, currently. We're getting very close to having administered 300 tests. Our percentages are very similar to what you see across the country, about 175, upwards of almost 200 negative tests coming through. But all that adds up to a lot of uncertainty at the site, a high absentee of them, due to the number of people that we self-isolate for the 14 days. [inaudible] there's a segment of the population that is trying to figure out really what this means to them. So we decided the best thing we need to do today in the short term is to reduce the size of that workforce, so that we can get a better handle on what we're going to do day to day. So we announced earlier today 1,500 to 2,000 kind of workforce reductions. We're going to work through that process here in the short term, then we're going to hear ourselves kind of stabilize, and then kind of go forward at that point. So we continue to construct the plans. It's clearly not as efficiently as we intended at this point. That's kind of the consequence along with the people impact. But given that, we're still progressing critical path at unit 3, and we're going to do our very best to hold unit 3 to our internal schedule. If something has to give, it'll probably be unit 4 here in the short term. But so far, we've had very good response from the workforce trying to keep our path going there. So, obviously, the situation's fluid. And we'll continue to adjust as we learn and implement more measures. Tom Fanning: Hey, Steve, I know you guys have put in place an aggressive schedule. The regulatory commitment is to complete each of the units in November of '21 and November of '22. What is your and your team's confidence level about achieving that regulatory guideline? Steve Kuczynski: I think this plays into our strategy all along, was to build margin for those November dates. So we still feel confident that we certainly can meet the November date. Our team is not giving an inch on the earlier date. If you remember earlier, in our schedule reset earlier this year, we accelerated unit 4 a couple of months. So we have some room there to allow that schedule to move out. So we just need to work through kind of this period right here, see where we're stable. And then likely start to rebuild the workforce here after, hopefully, the peak is gone and everybody learns to kind of live and work in this environment a little bit better. Tom Fanning: Cool. Thank you. Paul Bowers, you and your team, Chris Kaminski and others, have done tremendous work making sure that the governor is informed, the public service commission, community leaders, the legislature. Talk a little bit about the level of support in the state and some of the issues you've been dealing with in just making sure we continue a pace at Vogtle. Paul Bowers: Okay. Well thanks, Tom. And thanks for everyone listening in. This is critical, I think, from a communications standpoint, the opportunity for us to be transparent about we're dealing with. As you look at Vogtle 3 and 4, as Steve said, earlier this past year, we put in place a aggressive schedule to give us margin. And in that process, we had been communicating with all the stakeholders, be it the local government officials, state government officials, making sure that they understood what path we're taking to understand what we were doing. As coronavirus hit, we were able to give them, really, day to day updates of what actions we were taking, from a medical village, the CDC guidelines that we're putting in place, looking at more enhanced opportunities to distance some of the teams around the plant, just to keep them abreast of what we were trying to do with a densely populated construction site. As Tom alluded to, now the support has been conducive, in terms of wanting us to complete this plant, and ensuring that the plant continues on the regulatory schedule. So from a governor's TranscribeMe 5

standpoint, there's been some quotes in the paper from the public commissioners about, these events of coronavirus are impediments to the process that we have there to be aggressive. But we still expect to be on schedule in November. But overall, I think, as Steve alluded to, our number one job is to make sure that workforce over there is safe. As we focused on today, to think about the AK that we filed, to try to minimize the impact to the workforce over there. We are keeping our media abreast and also the state officials. One last thing is, Jason Cuevas and the team over in Augusta region have been communicating with the medical professionals in that area to ensure that if we have any impact on the communities, that we are going to provide as much assistance as we can, be it protective devices, masks. If we could get some more testing instruments for those people in that region, we were going to do it. There's approximately 2,000 beds. And to date, out of the 52, none have been hospitalized yet. So we're focused on making sure nobody's surprised about what's happening at Vogtle 3 and 4. Tom Fanning: Thanks, Paul. Hey, Paul's also updated his board. Those of you on the phone should know that I've had several meetings with the Southern Company Board, broadly about the coronavirus response, specifically about the impact on Vogtle. But this isn't just kind of a Southern and Georgia issue. I want to thank my friends at Alabama Power. Mark Crosswhite has provided awesome leadership in getting medical support through the hospital there at UAB, University of Alabama at Birmingham. And also, Jeff Peoples is doing a terrific job helping us have several lines of communication with labor. Jeff, why don't you just jump in real quick? Talk about the context of those conversations in respect of their recognition of our efforts to make this a safe workplace. Jeff Peoples: I will, Tom. We've got a lot of money in the bank with these guys. We've had a really good relationship. We've worked on that for a long time. A lot of mutual respect. I think what they see is that when we were faced with this, what we had was an opportunity to really create a situation where that worksite was a place people wanted to be. And so what we did, we got out there, opened up a medical village down there, worked really hard on that. And what we ended up getting was kind of buying our self a month. And so I think when we come back out of that, we got a month out of it down there. And we got our self in a really good situation to where even though we had a bunch of positives, or some positives come out on us here, we've got a really good plan going forward of how we're going to change out and do that workforce down there. Mark Crosswhite: Every time-- it's Crosswhite. It's Crosswhite, Tom. Every time we talk to the building trade, they are very effusive in their support of what Georgia Power and the Southern Nuclear folks at the site have done. It has really-- as Jeff said, it's built up an enormous amount of goodwill for us with the building trade. Tom Fanning: Hey, Mark, just a quick verse too on your relationship with the medical community in Birmingham and what you been doing to help them help the site with tests and all. Mark Crosswhite: Well sure, Tom. I had the opportunity to serve on several boards with the University of Alabama at Birmingham's health system. And that gives us some insight with them. We have enlisted their help in getting an infectious disease expert, Dr. Hook. No kin to the song, I don't think, or the band. But Dr. Hook has been a very good resource for us, and we've been able to use his advice in getting things done there at the site, and really across the whole system. He's been a great resource. And I think-- this may not be exactly where you're going, Tom, but across the system, I know all the companies are working with local medical providers to help them solve some of their needs. Over here, we're putting together face masks for UAB, and so forth. When you talk about being a citizen where we serve, it's the right thing to do. But it also gives us capital with the hospitals and the medical universities, that when we need their help on things, like how do we handle plant Vogtle, we can get their help quickly. Yeah, Tom, I'd like to add one more thing, too. Tom Fanning: Yeah, go ahead, [inaudible]. Across the nation, we have been lauded by the building trades as being the textbook example of how to keep people safe on a worksite. And I just emphasize again that the work that Steve and his team have done on that side and allowed us to keep the site open for four or five weeks here, I mean, we're recognized across the United States as

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being the people who have done it right. So that's a really good combination for Steve and his team, as well the partnership back with the building trades, that we work together. And in fact, the building trades came out with essentially a publication that basically delineated how wonderful they think we've been doing. So good stuff. And I think what I want everybody on the phone to hear is that every issue we got as a system, we deal with as a system. Sometimes it is just a local issue, and we deal with it locally. But where different people can help - think of it as chess pieces around the board - we can bring to bear the greatest minds and more arms and more legs to solve almost any problem we have. And it's a terrific team effort. Talking about team efforts, let me transition now to this storm. Mark, I think all of our companies got hit to some extent. But Alabama Power, I think, bore the brunt of it. Why don't you lead us away in the response of the storm? Mark Crosswhite: Yes, sir. So this past weekend, we combined Easter, the corona pandemic, and a series of storms and tornadoes, all colliding at the same time. The storm that we saw in Alabama was the 12th worst storm we had in Alabama Power's history. About 20% of our customers were impacted by the storm, over 300,000. When we saw what was going on-- so we had massive damage across the state. We ultimately had to replace almost 500 poles, over 2,000 spans of wire, over 250 transformers. It was a massive undertaking. When Scott and I first discussed it on Monday morning, when we could see what we had, we talked about how with the issues of coronavirus, with all the other uncertainty that utilities across the South would have, would we be able to get people to come assist us. We really didn't know. But Scott was very clear. He understood that we have people staying at home, and getting service back on was critical. So he reached out through the Southeastern Electric Exchange and with some personal contacts that he has. He reached people all over the South. And ultimately, we had 900 outside people come in, Tom. Some of them were from Georgia Power. Some of them were from . They were great partners and helped us. But we also had Texas, Arkansas, Florida, and other states bringing help to Alabama to recover. We set a goal early on of getting it done by midnight Wednesday. The team did a great job. I'm only aware of one injury. I hate to have even one, but we did have a mashed finger during the restoration. But our hat is off. We stayed close with Casey Shelton, the IBEW team members. They were great. In these kind of events, as you know, Tom, again, build up an enormous amount of goodwill with the communities we serve. They see our folks, our teams, out working and getting the lights on, when everyone else is sheltering in place. So it was a phenomenal effort. Great team work across the system, and with great support from our friends at IBEW. Tom Fanning: Thanks, buddy. Hey, let me turn now, give us some quick verse, Anthony Wilson, Paul Bowers, and Kim Greene. Anthony Wilson: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just to add a little bit to Mark's remarks. The storm system was extremely violent. As it started, it moved across Mississippi on Sunday, about the middle of the day. We had two very large tornadoes, an EF3 and an EF4, move across our service territory. The larger EF4 was actually on the ground for 68 miles, and was 2 miles wide. And weather services indicated that that is the largest tornado that we've ever had in Mississippi. Fortunately, it moved across the portion of the state and the service territory that was not heavily populated. Unfortunately, it did hit several smaller towns. One of those was Soso, Mississippi. Just about every customer there, about 350 customers, all of them not only lost their service, but most of them lost a good bit of their property. And we had to do a total rebuild there. And we were able to do that. We had a target of doing that by noon on Wednesday. We finished about midnight on Tuesday. I would say that [Fran?] and the other power delivery team members across the whole Southern system put together a great plan. They executed the plan. We had no injuries here in the event. And I think, Tom, you said this is the first time we've really exercised our COVID protocols. And I think the team across the footprint executed really well using those protocols. I don't think that it really slowed us down much at all. And we were able to deliver, I think, service back to our customers in a very positive way, and at the same time we kept our employees safe. So I think it was just an outstanding effort. Tom Fanning: Fabulous. Thank you, my friend. Paul?

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Paul Bowers: Real quick, I'm going to give accolades to all our team members that really worked through the storm. We had 158,000 customers affected at peak. Right at 82,000 at peak. But I think the most important aspect of our team work and our focus and being safe was the recognition that we had a lot of our customers at home being sheltered in place. The only normal thing that they had was the lights were on. And our team took a lot of pride getting the power back on very quickly for our customers. So that was outstanding. And one of the comments from the team members was that finally, we get to do something that is back to normal. And that is how we respond for our customers. So that was a big deal. They did a great job. One last point, a few weeks ago we had one of our team members get flash burned, Randall Burger. I just want to let everybody know, that was a serious incident. He is at home, doing well. He was in the hospital for a few days. But if you all have an opportunity to send him a note or just call him, just to encourage him as he's recovering. That's all I got, Tom. Tom Fanning: Yeah. Thanks. Everybody should know, I spoke to his wife. And I think she was very appreciative of the prompt attention that she got from the Georgia Power family there. So thanks for that. Kim Greene? Kim Greene: Hey, thanks, Tom. And hello everybody. So we typically think of storms as primarily causing major impacts to our electric system. But they can also affect our gas infrastructure. And the same system of storms that rolled through Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia came up through north Georgia and right in metro Chattanooga. That city experienced an EF3 tornado that was about half a mile wide and traveled for eight miles. And so sadly, there were at least 11 people killed. 344 structures were completely destroyed in Hamilton County, which is metro Chattanooga. And over 1,000 structures were damaged. So when there is this much severe damage, that does create trouble for our underground gas distribution system. As trees come up and structures are ripped out of the ground, they will often bring up the soil and the gas infrastructure with it. And then also there can be damage, either homes or trees falling on gas meters. And so this was a significant incident for Chattanooga Gas. And our team responded just like the rest of our system, just like champions. We pulled together. That team was up all night long. We rallied troops from Georgia, and the equipment from Illinois. And even the electric company in Chattanooga, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, relied on from contractor resources from Georgia Power. So thanks to the mutual assistance program. And thank you, Georgia Power, for helping in that situation in Chattanooga as well. So our crews had to go through individually over 350 homes and businesses, where there were gas lines that were broken. Gas can be blowing. That's certainly something that is very dangerous. And I am proud to report that everything in Chattanooga was handled safely. We had no injuries, and there were no incidents as a result of that significant damage in Chattanooga. So thanks to everybody. And one thing that is a little also different about our business is that we do regularly go into people's homes. People rely on for heat, for water heating, for being able to cook hot meals. And so we have, over this entire period of time, continued to serve our customers. We developed a very detailed job aid or safety protocol for our employees who are going into homes where there may be someone with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID. So over 30 different times, our employees have gone into homes and made sure that our customers have the service that they need. And we have handled those cases safely. And I just couldn't be prouder of our employees. Because there are other gas companies that are not doing what we're doing. And obviously, that's a customer service issue. That can be a problem with your regulator, certainly a PR issue. So our folks are stepping up. And I think across our entire system-- I'm on several meetings or calls with national energy companies, and I think we are doing more than anybody in terms of keeping our employees safe. Our teams who were in Chattanooga certainly had to interface with a lot of other different kinds of first responders. And our people reported to us that they saw more than ever how much more diligence we have put in to providing them the PPE, the safety protocols. They did not necessarily see that among everybody that they were working with. So we've done a terrific job there. And again, this was a terrible situation. And we also managed it well. I want to mention one other thing, in terms of being different than the electrics. Yeah. Tom mentioned the impact to revenues on the electric business. And our gas business is less affected by changes and volume metric sales, due to our regulated rate structures. So while we may indeed see a loss of revenue, it's going to be smaller than that of the TranscribeMe 8

electric business. But we do have a couple of other impacts that we're working hard to manage. We have two rate cases, rate actions, that we're supposed to file this year. Those are being delayed right now. And we've got to determine how to move forward with that. We also have huge construction projects going on. And I'm very proud that we've been able to continue those and keep our contractor partners working. It's terrible to see all the millions of people who are losing their jobs. And we've been able to keep those contracts and those projects going. So we're doing, again, terrific work. Southern Company shines always brightest. And I'm just really proud to be a part of this company and a part of this team. So thank you very much, Tom. Tom Fanning: Thank you, Kim. Hey, real quick, Lantrip, give us just a little bit on PowerSecure and Southern Power, how they're being affected by the virus. Any impacts from the storms? Mark Lantrip: Sure, Tom. So I'll start with Southern Power. Similar to what Kim said on the gas business, Southern Power is not affected as much as sort of the retail companies are, because they're contracted. Their business is built around this contracted model, which has served us well. For the most part, I would say Southern Power is business as usual, albeit it's been less productive because everybody's scattered. You can't get together face to face. But we got six projects that are active. Four of those are actually active construction projects. The other ones are business development and about ready to commence. We've been able to keep all of those projects going, and they're scattered all across the US. Of course, we've had to adhere to the same safety issues that we've already discussed on here. So knock on wood, Southern Power has performed wonderfully, I think, given the circumstances. PowerSecure, much the same way. So all the projects that were in progress, we kept those projects going, and recently sent people as far as California to begin to work on some projects that are critical to those customers in California, to get them in before the fires start. And so the biggest impact there is probably in terms of the new business has essentially shut down for at least two or three weeks, and is beginning to pick back up now. But you're going to see some of the business in the pipeline pushed out a month or so, or two months. And that's the biggest impact. But it just pushes it into the next year. But I think we kept most of the workers. I had about 10% of the people out. The rest of them are working either in the field or from home. We had 102 customers that were impacted by the storms that we just talked about as well. And those are mostly grocery stores and Walmarts and hospitals in the Southeast. So they're scattered all up the coast. That's it. Tom Fanning: Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. All right. So what I'd like to do now is, there's so much going on in DC around this, whether there's helping the Congress to get financial aid to different industries or individuals. And a lot going on inside the administration. Bryan Anderson, give us the benefit of what you're seeing right now. Bryan Anderson: Thanks, Tom. Let me just start by saying what we just heard, the way the system responds to our customers in the communities, in good times and in bad times, does not go unnoticed by policy makers. I just want to say, they recognize the essential work that our system does every day, but particularly and especially today, with what's going on. And that gives us the credibility that we need to do what we do in Washington every day. So thank you for that. Three quick thoughts, Tom, on what's going on in Washington. Number one, in spite of what you hear on the news every day, I want to just call out that Democrats and Republicans have really come together around this health crisis. And what they've done is they focused on two immediate goals. One is stop this virus. And two is to stabilize the economy. And I think over the last 30 days, together, they have put $3 trillion towards that goal. And that's benefitting our customers, our communities, and our system. But I just want to call out that more is needed now to stabilize the economy. And we, because of the credibility that the system gives us, are working currently on that. The second point I wanted to make, and as you pointed out, Tom, at some point soon - and I think it's already here - attention's going to shift from stabilizing the economy to really reopening the economy. And secondly, how best to stimulate the economy that we've reopened. And both of those questions require a lot of pre thinking and a lot of work now to ensure that we get that right. And we are, and we will be, involved in those discussions to protect both our people, our customers, and our communities. The last one I wanted to make is that, believe it or not, the presidential election is only 200 days away. And it has a lot of people worked up, wringing their hands. And I think it's fair to say that the outcome is far from certain. But

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what I wanted to say, and you should know this, we are engaged in a politically astute non-partisan way, working every day with both parties to ensure that our people, our customers, our community, our system are [inaudible] position, regardless of the outcome. So at that time, I'll turn it back to you. Tom Fanning: Thanks, my friend. And for the people on the phone, I probably don't say this enough. The organization led by Chris Womack, Bryan Anderson, is the best in the industry. And I think we did a survey not long ago-- I don't know what it was, Bryan, a year, a year and a half ago. But I think among all the Fortune 500 companies, I think we were ranked second in our effectiveness in the United States. You guys do a fabulous job. And our reach is much broader than the service territories that we're privileged to have. We really do have a national reputation. And I think that's why when these task forces get put together, you see names like Mark Crosswhite, Bryan, and others. So that doesn't just come out of thin air. That comes out of good hard work of thousands of people, way before the need ever arises. So good stuff. The American economic revival is something that we're all focused on and looking forward to. All right. So there's so much going on. Normally, what I would do, folks, on a conference call, Southern Company Management Council call, is go around the horn. And I'd pick up Drew Evans in terms of earnings. You should know that we have an analyst earnings call, when is it, April 30. So in a little bit less than two weeks, we'll be telling the whole world about earnings. So I really can't do that. That's why I really haven't called on Drew Evans. And Jim Kerr has been helping everybody in this situation. His legal team has been terrific, and for all the jokes we can make about lawyers, they are invaluable to this system. And as I think about our kind of stock-- I mean our stock offering premise, that is reasonable risk-- I mean, I'm sorry, reasonable returns with some of the lowest risk profiles possible. One of the reasons why we have a low risk profile is because we have people like Jim, and Melissa Cain, and Sterling, and Meredith at the [Othcos?], and others that really work hard to help the business people carry out their business in the most effective way possible. So look, I generally go around and let everybody report. What I'd rather do right now, though, is take questions from the audience. So Schuyler Baehman helps with this effort and works with me directly. Schuyler, if you could lead us away on some of the questions that we've gotten from the audience. Schuyler Baehman: Sure, Tom. Here's one. A lot of people asked this, but this comes from John Mansfield in Illinois. What will a return to the office look like? Will we all return at once, have a staggered in-office, at-home days? Are we wearing masks? How will we ensure that our teams are comfortable with going back to work? Tom Fanning: Yeah. Thanks, John. I appreciate the question. It's hard to say at this point. I can speak broadly about it, and that is, it's pretty clear to me that there will be a phased in approach. It won't be just one day we say, "Okay, everybody. Let's go back," and everything's normal. There is a much kind of broader cultural question. And I wouldn't be surprised but that, as a result of this time that we've been under these extraordinary circumstances, that we do undertake more things like telecommuting and more awareness of our own personal space and medical hygiene on the work fronts. It's funny. Different businesses will answer that question differently. If you're a restaurant that has been shut down, certainly you've sent your people home, and you hope you can hire people back. As my notes indicated from this engagement with the president, it was really, for us, a different challenge. In other words, we don't get to stop making, moving, and selling electricity. Certainly, the coronavirus protocols that we put in place do call for different behaviors. It's not clear to me but that some of these behaviors may persist for some time. It's also unclear to me as to how this virus will manifest itself over the next year or so. If you go back to 1919 and the Spanish flu that went around the world, there was an outbreak in the spring just like this one. Then there was a cooling off period essentially during the summer. And for some reason, these viruses are not as virulent during warm weather. But then I think people got relaxed. And there was an enormous spike in the fall, followed by a third spike in the winter. I think it's important for all of us to keep foremost this notion of maintaining hygiene even after we do begin to return to work, or we will suffer the same history that we saw with the Spanish flu. So it's something that we're all thinking about. So many people engaged on this. I can assure you that it will take time, and we will adjust as we get more information. Thanks for the question. Schuyler?

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Schuyler Baehman: Sure. The next question is from Steven Taylor in Georgia. Does the fact that we've been successful at working remotely for an extended period of time allow us to do some remote working more often in the future, even after we return to the office? Tom Fanning: Yeah, I think so. Mark Crosswhite, why don't you take a shot at that? Tom Fanning: Could you repeat it, Tom? I couldn't-- it's garbled on my end. I couldn't quite make it out. Schuyler Baehman: Sure. It's a question about, since we've been successful working remotely during this time, will this allow us to do it more often in the future, even after we return to the office? Mark Crosswhite: Okay. I got it better that time. Thanks. I think that's going to be one of the things that we will be looking at, how we can learn from this episode. I do think that there may be many groups of people that we see can work remotely and don't have to be physically in the office. And we've been doing that for some time already with things like call centers and people in customer service. I think this is showing us that we can do more. Now, one of the issues I think we have to resolve in Alabama will be what I call the digital divide. We've made arrangements for people to have access to high speed broadband access, but that's not pervasive throughout all of our service territories. Once you leave some of the more metropolitan areas, you can find high speed Internet can be a problem. Not having it, lack of it, would be the problem. So I think yes, we will see the opportunity to do more remote working. But I also think it will highlight the need for us to have better broadband access in rural areas. Tom Fanning: And one more issue, just to pile on there. People have probably heard about the advent of the 5G systems that may be coming to America. Those will likely come in unevenly. And so that exacerbates what Crosswhite is talking about. And I would be remiss when we're talking about technology not to showcase the leadership of Martin Davis and the whole information technology organization. With all the telecommuting and all the challenges we've had, those guys have done fabulous. So well done. Schuyler, let's take the next question. Schuyler Baehman: This comes from Joe Delrio in Illinois. How will COVID-19 change our utility operations and in- person customer interactions after the stay at home orders are lifted and beyond? Tom Fanning: Well, certainly, I think we've hit some of that already. In other words, we will carry forward into the workplace some of these matters of greater personal hygiene and really greater awareness of our personal space at work and keeping our workplaces clean, all those sorts of things. Kim, do you want to add anything there? Kim Greene: Hey, thanks, Tom. I think we're definitely finding out that we can work differently going forward. There are a lot of our business functions that we've recognized that we can absolutely do productively remotely. We have had challenges in the past, for example, maybe in one area of our business, finding people who will commute to certain work locations. It may be a long commute. And if we can do more home basing for some of our job functions, I think we'll have better situations in terms of turnover. And we'll have some happier folks. We've had terrific levels of attendance, very low levels of absenteeism. And I'll just admit that I have certainly been educated tremendously in how we might be able to work differently in the future. And I see our future as a new normal. And our team within the gas company is certainly beginning. We're going to have a meeting on Wednesday talking about what sorts of protocols that we have in place now that need to remain. And there will be, certainly, protocols that we put in place for this situation that will be permanent. And then we need to look at what our target needs to look like in terms of different business units and how our work function will look in the future. And so we're open to that. And I think it's really interesting to me that the trend of these questions, I think this is on a lot of people's minds. And I think that we should have a lot of input from how things are going, from the employee base. And we need to be open to thinking about ways that we can be as productive and provide the best job satisfaction for our folks who need more flexibility than maybe they've had in the past. Tom Fanning: Hey, Stan Connally, you help lead the operations of Southern Company, whether it's wires business or the generation business. Tell us what you see as a consequence of the aftermath of the coronavirus. One of the things I specifically want you to touch on is supply chain issues.

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Stan Connally: Yeah. Thank you, Tom. Well, let me begin with a thank you. There are an awful lot of folks that are still coming to our work locations, power plants, our nuclear facilities, our control centers, our field forces. But they're doing it very differently than they did prior to coronavirus. But they are coming to our locations and keeping the lights on and the gas flowing. Even those organizations have found new ways of getting work done. There's members of those teams that are working remotely. And I think we can continue to adopt some of those practices. I will tell you, we have plugged in-- Tom has made mention of kind of some national conversations. Supply chain has been a big one. Jeff Franklin and his team have shifted from buying poles and transformers and wire to buying face masks and sanitizer over the last month. It's been a pretty incredible machine to watch as they have found new vendors to rely on there. I think it's made us more creative in some of our vendor relationship. But those are the kind of things we're going to have to be sure we're focused on going forward, making sure our people have the PPE they need, making sure things like sanitizer remain part of our hygiene practices. And I can tell you, Southern Company, we've had our struggles. Hopefully, the team hasn't seen that in the field. But I can tell you, compared to many of the folks we talk to around the country, we've been very fortunate that we've been able to procure and distribute the materials we've needed to keep our teams working through all this. And I'm confident we'll be able to keep that going forward. But we'll keep learning. We'll keep learning from the industries around us. Stan plugged in with the electric sector, but also the gas sector, taking those best practices and bringing them back home. I think we'll be better for this. That's kind of hard to say in the midst of what we're feeling right now. I think we'll be better teams across Southern, even in the operation spaces where we're used to coming to our work places every day. We'll find new ways of getting the job done. Tom Fanning: Something else I want folks on the phone to understand is, so you all know I lead the effort [inaudible] electric council to deal with [inaudible] coronavirus. Stan leads what's called the plus one group. As you can imagine, there's 25 CEOs from [inaudible] and [inaudible] come out of that work. Stan leads the team of people - we call it the plus ones - that help [inaudible]. Schuyler? Schuyler Baehman: Okay. Yes. The next question comes from Gail Bird in Alabama. Will a voluntary severance package be considered to reduce costs, versus layoffs or furloughs? Tom Fanning: [inaudible]. Schuyler Baehman: Okay. The next question comes from Joe Higgley in Georgia. Due to the pandemic and local issues impacting the ability to take vacation, would the company temporarily consider increasing the amount of vacation carried over into the next year, or allow for the sale of unused vacation back to the company at the end of the year? [inaudible]. Hey, Tom. You're cutting in and out. Tom? Yeah. Yeah. You're cutting in and out on us. Tom Fanning: Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. We can't hear you. Tom Fanning: Paul and Sloane, do you want to take that one? Sure. Let Sloane. Sloane Drake: Yeah. So we, as a part of this process, have looked at lots of policies and guidelines that we've had to amend. And so vacation is one that we are looking at and thinking about right now, and should have an answer about that a little bit later. We do have a process right now for people to sell back vacation that they buy. So we

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anticipate that we'll continue to do that. But we'll let you know if there's decisions made about whether or not people will be able to roll over more vacation for next year. Thanks, Tom. Paul Bowers: Hey, the other thing too, Sloane and her team, with Nicole Faulk and Pedro Cherry, are looking at the whole policy aspect of when you come back to work, how we're going to come back to work and all that [inaudible]. But there are micro battles that are taking place, how to look at the new normal that Kim was referring to. So think about policy, how they're impacting individuals. Think about how we come back to work. And then think about how we become more efficient as a business because of what we just experienced. So those activities are ongoing, and our teams are really focused on answering that for everyone. Tom Fanning: Thanks, buddy. Hey Schuyler, next question? Schuyler Baehman: One of President Trump's recent press briefings mentioned that Southern Company and Alabama Power will be part of the input on decision making for reopening the economy starting April 15th. Is there anything you can discuss on what's been discussed, and what the timeframe will look like in our areas? Tom Fanning: Well, Mark, you and I ought to tag team this one. I think there's a lot more work to do. There's already been a lot of work going on. I mentioned one of the plus one teams at the ESCC, under Stan's leadership, has taken the ball on what is re-emergence in the workforce look like. Although, it's less stark for us because we never really left. We have to continue. Now, a lot of these other industries are impacted in a much more profound way. And I really think the danger that I think people are responding to is this very tough question. Is the cure worse than the illness? And it makes perfect sense to sequester, to stay at home, to do the things that we're doing right now to flatten the curve, so to speak. But at some point, as that produces damage, particularly to the commercial sector, what do we do to restart? And how do we get the engine going again once we've been on idle for some period of time. I think that's just a multi-layer question. Each industry will have to answer differently. And then there has to be consistent federal policy to make that happen. On the call yesterday was just a host of CEOs offering opinions. Beyond just offering opinions, I think we as a nation have to come up with a fabric of a real strategy on how to re- engage. And it has to be coordinated across the sectors of our economy. Mark, I'd love to have you comment on that. And Womack, I wouldn't mind you giving us the benefit of your wisdom. Mark Crosswhite: Yeah. I guess, yeah, the takeaway from the call yesterday I would have, Tom, is exactly what you said. There is a need for some federal guidance, some federal standards, and different things that people ask for with respect to testing and so forth. But I would also expect there to be some variability, not only by industry, but by state, with some states being so stricken by coronavirus and in really bad straits. There may be a staggered return, not just by industry, or not just by job classification, but also geographically. That was one of the things, I guess, I came away thinking we might see, Tom. Tom Fanning: Absolutely true. And even, we've dealt with this. And I know Stan's been on top of this one. Thank goodness we were able to manage the Southeastern Exchange coordination and mutual assistance well. But if we have a big hurricane where we got to bring people in from all the states in the United States, or virtually all of them, holy smokes, state by state has different kind of ideas as to what is critical and what is not. I know the California people are wanting to do more vegetation management, and the states are saying, "We'd rather you not view that as critical and stay at home." There are a host of differences among the states. And one of the other kind of notes I had here was somehow-- you may have all seen this argument about the president has this authority, and Cuomo and New York says, "No, I've got this authority." Somehow, we've got to kind of put that aside and come up with a cohesive approach for America. That's a big deal. Chris Womack, what would you say? Chris Womack: Tom, I can't add very much, except for I know Bryan Anderson has been engaged with the Business Roundtable. We're working very closely with the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers. There are a number of large associations that are seeking to help facilitate what reopening the economy looks like. A lot of anxiety, a lot of interests. People are ready to go. And I think everybody's trying to figure out what the

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[inaudible] is to ensure safety, ensure wellness, and also not to have another spike of this virus. So we're staying engaged with all those parties to learn what we can, but also to offer the guidance that we can. Tom Fanning: Thanks, buddy. Hey, Schuyler, next question? Schuyler Baehman: Yeah. If you don't mind, Tom, because you were cutting out, could you please give us your answer on, will a voluntary severance package be considered to reduce costs, versus layoffs or furloughs?

Tom Fanning: No. We don't see a need for that right now. I mean, things may change in the future, but recall my opening comments. Everything we're doing right now-- and I think we have the wherewithal necessary to accomplish this. It's to achieve expense reduction. And our attention will be to preserve jobs, to avoid layoffs, to avoid furloughs. And associated with that, right now, I don't see the need for voluntary severances at all. Now, of course, that could change in the future, but as I sit here right now, and I can tell you, I've heard none of that from anybody on the phone from the Management Council. Okay? Schuyler Baehman: Thank you. The next question's from Jodie Swan in Alabama. Once a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, does Southern Company have plans to acquire doses for its employees and their families? Tom Fanning: You know what, let me get Drew Evans to kind of lead away with this one. Drew's wife is a distinguished medical professional. Drew, you want to take a shot at that? Drew Evans: I don't know. Schuyler, give me another shot at it. Schuyler, could you repeat the question for Drew? Schuyler Baehman: You bet. Absolutely. Once a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, does Southern Company have plans to acquire doses for its employees and their families? [crosstalk] just [crosstalk] comments on-- [crosstalk]. Go ahead. Drew Evans: Yeah. I'm certainly not the expert here. I think it's a lot like PPE, that we'll probably see the deployment of any kind of vaccine among healthcare professionals first, people that are probably much more exposed to it than we are. But I would imagine that with time, a couple years out, it's going to be as common as the flu shot that we'll be able to receive, certainly something we deploy at the company. If it becomes widely available, I'm certain that we'll do it. Tom Fanning: Yeah. And Drew, I just thought you were an interesting guy to ask that question to, given your wife-- just give everybody a verse on who your wife is and what she does. Drew Evans: So Faye is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Boston Children's Hospital. And she's pretty fortunate in that the pediatric hospitals don't have very many cases to attend to because they're not seeing it in the pediatric population. But certainly, the other hospitals in her area are starting to get overwhelmed. I'm in kind of an odd position in that I'm on the board of-- a trustee of Emory, and I'm on the board of Grady Hospital. And so I'm overseeing about 3,000 beds in the state. And we're in pretty good stead in the Southeast, particularly in Georgia and Alabama. We're not overwhelming our hospital systems. But the one thing that they're just simply trying to suppress with all of this social distancing is not overwhelming the number of beds that are available to care for people that really need it. The one thing that-- or a couple things that Faye notes is just that folks that are coming in with COVID-19 are much, much sicker than what you would experience with the flu. And they're multiples more contagious to others. And so they're starting to intubate people for periods of 7 and 12 days, which is something that

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you just commonly don't do with flu. So I understand the social distancing. I know it's burdensome to all of us. But without it, the hospital systems just couldn't function in a very normal way. Tom Fanning: Great. Thanks, buddy. Schuyler? Schuyler Baehman: I think we've got time for one more. Times of great challenges are also times of great opportunities. How is Southern Company hoping to leverage these rapidly changing times to accelerate our push towards a low to no carbon future? Tom Fanning: Oh, thanks for that. In fact, I'd love to have Womack and Connally speak up on this one too. But let me lead away. One of the conversations-- I have ongoing conversations with members of our board. You can imagine. But particularly, Steve Specker, former president of GE Nuclear, former CEO of EPRI, Electric Power Research Institute. And he was, for a while, CEO of a nuclear fusion company, very attuned to environmental matters. He started a conversation among Ernie Moniz, former Energy Secretary, and me, about the acuity of the ability to view the landscape. In fact, I can sit here and see mountains in the distance. The sky is cleaner with the, really, reduction probably of automobile emissions, number one, but other emissions, number two. And we had started a conversation, Ernie Moniz, me, Steve, and others, about is this what the future might look like from an air quality standpoint? And is this perhaps a nice picture of what we're driving to in terms of this low to no carbon environment that we've already committed to? And one of the things you will hear more about in the weeks ahead is a commitment to a net zero carbon emission by 2050. So there will be more to say about that. Chris, what would you say? And then to Stan Connally. Chris Womack: Tom, I think you're right. I mean, the whole environmental community is moving from low to no to how do you incorporate a lot of other strategies, be it conversation offset, conservation easements, negative direct capture. A lot of things that takes you not only just to zero, but net zero. And so we are moving now to incorporate our transition from a low to no goal to net zero by 2050. And we'll be discussing that with the board, with the ops committee, tomorrow. We'll, of course, highlight it during our virtual annual meeting later in the month of May, and then also with some of the environmental stakeholders. We'll begin to share that messaging and that direction with them. Stan and Jeff, Stan, you want to add anything to that? Stan Connally: Yeah. Just a little finer on the net zero conversation. I think it's predicated on the position and belief we have that natural gas is going to be an important part of our fleet for a long time, whether it's natural gas as we know it today, or it's with carbon capture, or whatever. I think those are an acknowledgement by us. And I think it makes sense on behalf of our customers, given the price of gas, that natural gas be a big part of our fleet long term. So therefore, finding ways to offset those carbon emissions with things like electric transportation, right. Tom mentioned the way the mountains look right now. Well, the cars aren't out there burning gas. Well, just imagine our world if we could transition over to a more electrified or natural gas fleet with even lower emissions. That contributes to whole economy's reduction of carbon emissions. So all that plays together around net zero. And I think we've got some good plans going forward. And good news, we're already making good progress on our journey here. I think if you back up to 2030, all of you know that we committed another 50% reduction in our carbon emissions, off of 2007 baseline, about 2030. We'll meet that several years early. Southern's made great progress, and I think we've got some vision for where we can go to achieve that net zero future. Tom Fanning: And I tell you something else, and I bet most people on the phone don't realize. Jim Kerr, give us a burst on how important the EFG community is to our stock, and how they feel about these issues. Jim Kerr: Yeah. Thanks, Tom. We're seeing an increasing percentage of the owners of our stock put the environmental and social-- and there, think about human capital and diversity inclusion, supplier diversity, those kinds of issues, and good governance, which we certainly have had in place forever. But issues like the make-up of our board and the kinds of skills that members of our board and senior management bring to it. Increasingly, that is important to all investors. And when you see some trends around demographic shifts, younger investors that are new generations of investors that prioritize these issues more and more, you also see more of our stock being owned by index funds, or what we call passive investors who will own us regardless of-- they don't buy and sell our TranscribeMe 15

stock. They own it as part of an index fund. And the way that they influence-- since they can't sell our stock, they influence our business by bringing forward [subsistent?] issues or issues of governance. And for them, this transition to a lower carbon future and a cleaner future is a high priority. We saw it evolve to a greater extent in Europe several years ago. And that trend is certainly crossing the ocean and influencing the domestic investors. And large percentages of our shareholders put these kinds of issues much higher up on their list of priorities than they did even two, or three, or five years ago. Tom Fanning: Thanks, buddy. Hey, I think, Schuyler, that was the last question. But let me do one more thing. James Garvie, I think you're on the phone. You got 30 seconds. How well has our pension plan been doing? In other words, I'm really focused on how did we end the year in 2019, and kind of overall what your thinking is about the strength of our pension plan. James Garvie: Yeah. Sure, Tom. So year end 2019, we were at 100% funded, right on 100% for the qualified pension plan. And we really only look at it annually, but we do pulse checks throughout the year. And we do the pulse checks. The last check was about 92%, just a few days ago. So we have been holding up pretty well through all this asset volatility. So you've seen the stock markets. There have been a bunch of volatility. We are holding up pretty well. So we really won't take a good look at it again till the year end 2020. So we're in pretty good shape there, holding up pretty well. Tom Fanning: And James, we've had a commitment to making sure that the pension plan's in very strong shape. What did we contribute at the end of last year? James Garvie: Yeah. A little over $1.1 billion at the end of last year. Tom Fanning: So just to folks on the phone, if you sit and look at these markets, my sense is, broadly-- you don't need my investment advice, but I really think the market will come back. This is one of those downturns where I think we have a bright future ahead. But this company has a terrific track record of making sure that our promise to future retirees-- current retirees and future retirees, remains resolute. And we will always take the opportunity to make sure that we do what we need to do to make those promises can be fulfilled. That concludes this call. I really want to thank everybody for your attention. I know it went an hour and a half. I feel like we could've gone a lot longer. The fact that you guys are able to execute the important work of Southern Company, and at the same time making sure that we do it in a safe way-- we will get through this. It is an honor to work with you all. And during the worst of times, we perform in the best of ways. I can't thank you enough for your selfless teamwork and your commitment. And I am so proud to be a part of your team. Thanks, everybody, for joining us today. Look forward to talking with you soon. Take care. Operator: This concludes the Southern Company town hall webcast. Thank you for participating.

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