Company: SOJE
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000092122-25-000018
Chunk: 1014

Company: SOUTHERN CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 1014
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 significant judgment and extensive analysis of Southern Company's and its subsidiaries' current financial position and results of operations, including currently available information about future years, to estimate when future taxable income will be realized. See Note 10 to the financial statements under "Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities – Tax Credit Carryforwards" and " – Net Operating Loss Carryforwards" for additional information.

Current and deferred state income tax liabilities and assets are estimated based on laws of multiple states that determine the income to be apportioned to their jurisdictions. States have various filing methodologies and utilize specific formulas to calculate the apportionment of taxable income. The calculation of deferred state taxes considers apportionment factors and filing methodologies that are expected to apply in future years. Any apportionments and/or filing methodologies ultimately finalized in a manner inconsistent with expectations could have a material effect on the financial statements of the applicable Registrants.

Asset Retirement Obligations (Southern Company, Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Mississippi Power, and Southern Company Gas)

Estimating AROs requires significant judgment. AROs are computed as the present value of the estimated costs for an asset's future retirement and are recorded in the period in which the liability is incurred. The estimated costs are capitalized as part of the related long-lived asset and depreciated over the asset's useful life. In the absence of quoted market prices, AROs are estimated using present value techniques in which estimates of future cash outlays associated with the asset retirements are discounted using a credit-adjusted risk-free rate. Estimates of the timing and amounts of future cash outlays are based on projections of when and how the assets will be retired and the cost of future removal activities.

The ARO liabilities for the traditional electric operating companies primarily relate to facilities that are subject to the CCR Rule and the related state rules, principally surface impoundments. In addition, Alabama Power and Georgia Power have retirement obligations related to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities (Alabama Power's Plant Farley and Georgia Power's ownership interests in Plants Hatch and Vogtle). Other significant AROs include various landfill sites and asbestos removal for Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Mississippi Power and gypsum cells and mine reclamation for Mississippi Power.

The traditional electric operating companies and Southern Company Gas also have identified other retirement obligations, such as obligations related to certain electric transmission and distribution facilities, certain asbestos-containing material within long-term assets not subject to ongoing repair and maintenance activities, certain wireless communication towers, the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls in certain transformers