Company: SOJE
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000092122-25-000018
Chunk: 873

Company: SOUTHERN CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 873
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 acquisitions, dispositions, construction, and development projects.

Southern Power calculates an investment coverage ratio for its generating assets, including those owned with various partners, based on the ratio of investment under contract to total investment using the respective facilities' net book value (or expected in-service value for facilities under construction) as the investment amount. With the inclusion of investments associated with facilities under construction, as well as other capacity and energy contracts, Southern Power's average investment coverage ratio at December 31, 2024 was 96% through 2029 and 87% through 2034, with an average remaining contract duration of approximately 12 years. For the year ended December 31, 2024, approximately 46% of contracted MWs were with AAA to A- or equivalent rated counterparties, 46% were with BBB+ to BBB- or equivalent rated counterparties, and 6% were with unrated entities that either have ratemaking authority or have posted collateral to cover potential credit exposure.

Southern Power's electricity sales from natural gas generating facilities are primarily through long-term PPAs that consist of two types of agreements. The first type, referred to as a unit or block sale, is a customer purchase from a dedicated plant unit where all or a portion of the generation from that unit is reserved for that customer. Southern Power typically has the ability to serve the unit or block sale customer from an alternate resource. The second type, referred to as requirements service, provides that Southern Power serves the customer's capacity and energy requirements from a combination of the customer's own generating units and from Southern Power resources not dedicated to serve unit or block sales. Southern Power has rights to purchase power provided by the requirements customers' resources when economically viable. Capacity charges that form part of the PPA payments are designed to recover fixed and variable operations and maintenance costs based on dollars-per-kilowatt year and to provide a return on investment.

Southern Power's electricity sales from solar and wind generating facilities are also primarily through long-term PPAs; however, these solar and wind PPAs do not have a capacity charge and customers either purchase the energy output of a dedicated renewable facility through an energy charge or provide Southern Power a certain fixed price for the electricity sold to the grid. As a result, Southern Power's ability to recover fixed and variable operations and maintenance expenses is dependent upon the level of energy generated from these facilities, which can be impacted by weather conditions, equipment performance, transmission constraints, and other factors. Generally, under the renewable generation PPAs, the purchasing