November 13, 2024 - The booming demand for electricity from data centers and new factories requires an "all of the above" energy strategy, Southern Co. (NYSE:SO) CEO Chris Womack said Tuesday, adding the utility company could extend the retirement date of one of its coal plants.

"As we look at responding to demand growth, looking at coal operating longer is a consideration," Womack told Bloomberg in an interview at the EEI Financial Conference in Florida.

"Maybe those units get extended further into the next decade before they retire," the CEO said, referring to units at the company's Plant Bowen in Georgia.

Bowen currently does not have a set retirement date; Southern's (SO) Georgia Power subsidiary had proposed retiring Bowen units 1 and 2 by year-end 2028 but regulators ordered those unit retirements to be put forth in its resource plan next year.

Womack said rising power demand provides a rationale to delay coal retirements, and the potential end to certain power plant emission rules under a Trump administration could make it easier to run those plants longer into the future.