POWERGRAMS

only ninth-graders is intentional, as they are just starting their high school years. If something at Career Day catches their fancy, students can tailor classes the next three years to pursue jobs as linemen and engineers. ………. Angus Cooper III and Phil Webb were elected to the board of directors of Alabama Power. Cooper is president of Cooper/T. Smith Corp. in Mobile. Established in 1905, Cooper/T. Smith has operations on all three U.S. coasts and in Latin America. The company has diversified its business interests, which now include warehousing, terminal operations, tugboats, pushboats, barging, barge fleeting, floating terminals, logistics, marine and timberlands, vessel repair and restaurants. Webb is president of Webb Concrete & Building Materials Inc. Founded in 1945, the company operates ready-mix concrete plants in Oxford, Pell City, Heflin and Roanoke, and building materials locations in Heflin, Oxford, Pell City, Centre and Birmingham. The company has a flooring division in Pell City and maintains hardware stores in Heflin, Pell City and Centre. ………….. Partners for Environmental Progress (PEP) awarded its Environmental Stewardship Award to Alabama Power Company and the Plant Barry cluster of plants. Since 2005, the PEP board of directors has presented the awards annually to recognize members who have made significant and positive contributions to the Gulf Coast in environmental health, economic growth and social responsibility. Plant Barry employees said they work to be good stewards of the environment every day and took that charge to the next level with the creation of the Barry Environmental Stewardship Team (B.E.S.T.). Team members meet monthly to discuss, plan and participate in environmental stewardship, awareness and educational events within the plants and surrounding communities. MAY The typical monthly bill for an Alabama Power customer was reduced by more than $9 – the first portion of $337 million in savings coming to all Alabama Power customers from federal tax reforms. The reduction to bills through 2018 totaled $257 million, to be followed by $50 million in reductions in 2019. Customers will see fuel costs reduced by $30 million, for a total $337 million in benefits. The savings will help offset changes in fuel expenses related to providing reliable service to customers. In addition to the customer bill reductions and fuel benefits, Alabama Power has committed to not increase base rates through 2020, following a vote by the Alabama Public Service Commission. Commissioners modified the rate system that governs Alabama Power – lowering the top of the range of return the company can earn and revising how revenues are refunded when the company goes above the range. ………… On the banks of the Coosa River, a federally endangered woodpecker continues to thrive with help from friends. For more than 30 years, Alabama Power biologists have worked to protect and expand red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) populations on Lake Mitchell, which contains the second largest population of RCWs on private property in the state. The aptly named woodpecker measures about 7 inches tall and is black and white except for the red streak males have along the side of their heads. Each spring, Alabama Power employees monitor RCWs during their breeding season to estimate the bird population at Lake Mitchell. ……….. Utility executives from the African country of Zambia learned about Alabama Power's hydro operations as they looked to export ideas to their own hydroelectric facilities in a nation where less than half of the 17 million population has electricity. "We want to improve our benchmarking process to understand how to do things better," said Manyoni Banda, manager of insurance for ZESCO (Zambia Electricity Supply Corp.), who led the group of eight executives who met at Alabama Power Corporate Headquarters and toured Lay Dam. The majority of ZESCO's power generation is hydroelectric, which Banda said was a main reason the group wanted to meet with Alabama Power and Southern Company. JUNE Alabama Power was at work restoring electricity after fierce windstorms on opposite ends of the continent in 2017, and those efforts won the company two 2018 Emergency Assistance Awards from the Edison Electric Red-cockaded woodpecker population grew. 3

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