< Previous106 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION Corporate facility investment: $3.1 billion Jobs created: 2,928 Population and territory: Over 86,000 miles of power lines serve 3.2 million people in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. Highlights: Alabama Power’s Economic & Community Development (ECD) team continued to support the use of the state’s Site Evaluation and Economic Development Strategy (SEEDS) Act, which enhances Alabama’s competitiveness by addressing the need for development-ready sites and enabling more state resources to go to site development, improvement and acquisition. “In this round of funding 29 communities throughout the state were awarded $23.5 million in SEEDS grants,” writes Shane Kearney. “This was matched with $17.4 million in local funds for a total investment of $41 million toward site development, improvement and acquisition. Alabama Power’s ECD team continued the use of cutting-edge Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities and drone technology to review and assess thousands of acres of land to identify potential sites — with identifi ed sites receiving SEEDs funding. This process resulted in the establishment of new marketable sites for economic development.” Among other highlights, the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator, with the help of Innovate AL, welcomed 12 startup teams from seven states and fi ve foreign countries into its fi fth cohort, resulting in four fi rms obtaining commercialization and pilot opportunities that have resulted in their commitment to remain in the state and grow their businesses in some capacity. In January 2024, the Alabama Mobility and Power (AMP) Center moved into the newly completed Smart Communities and Innovation Building, where the AMP Center has engaged with numerous companies exploring opportunities to expand or locate operations in Alabama. It has also served as a venue for hosting key events, including the Southern Company EV Summit. “In September 2024, the AMP Center secured $15 million in funding and Stage I approval from the University of Alabama Board of Trustees for the development of the AMP Battery Manufacturing Research Lab,” Kearney says. “This new facility will signifi cantly enhance the Center’s ability to support battery manufacturing research and development, workforce training, and strategic business recruitment eff orts aimed at strengthening Alabama’s position in the national EV battery supply chain.” Alabama Power Company Birmingham, Alabama Shane Kearney, Director, Economic & Community Development www.amazingalabama.com SOUTH CENTRAL Corporate facility investment: $21.2 billion Jobs created: 7,505 Population and territory: PECO serves a population of 4.1 million in the City of Philadelphia and four surrounding counties plus a portion of York County, Pennsylvania. Highlights: Projects in the PECO portfolio last year included a $6 billion, 157-job data center campus from Green FIG in Frazer; a $430 million, 3,200-job offi ce investment from Chubb in Philadelphia; a $575 million, 300-job project from Sparks Therapeutics in Philadelphia; and a $90 million, 60-job life sciences R&D investment from Amstergen in Warminster in Bucks County. “In 2024 we received 41 large load inquiries tied to new business growth,” writes Glen Murphy. “These requests ranged from 2 MW to 1,200 MW. In response, PECO developed and implemented a clear, customer-focused process to help developers and customers navigate infrastructure planning and utility service needs effi ciently. This structured approach begins with early-stage engagement and a high-level review of the customer’s load request. From there, we coordinate an engineering feasibility assessment to determine the viability of service. Once feasibility is confi rmed, we provide a detailed, collaborative design and infrastructure plan tailored to meet the unique requirements of each new project. This end-to-end process has proven highly eff ective in supporting new business development across our territory and delivering actionable next steps to customers within a condensed timeframe.” PECO, an Exelon Company Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Glen Murphy, Senior Manager, Economic & Business Development www.PECO.com NORTHEAST108 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION Corporate facility investment: $8 billion Jobs created: 5,700 Population and territory: Cleco territory extends across 24 parishes in Louisiana, home to 500,000 people. Highlights: “Our job is to help showcase all Louisiana has to off er, from reliable energy to infrastructure like ports and waterways and agricultural land,” said Richard Cornelison, Cleco’s director of marketing and economic development, during Economic Development Week in May. “We identify, prepare and promote development-ready sites to site selectors and consultants, ensure necessary utilities are in place and provide detailed electric utility data.” The utility has been doing so for 90 years, ever since it got its start in 1935 in Bunkie, Louisiana, as an ice and cold storage business. Among the projects Cornelison highlighted is Cleco’s work with SunGas Renewables Inc. to serve their Beaver Lake Renewable Energy project, a green methanol production facility to be built in central Louisiana that will result in 100 local permanent jobs. Cleco itself, in partnership with D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, is constructing one of the largest solar projects in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Cleco’s energy effi ciency program, Power Wise, in 2024 helped customers save approximately 37.6 million kWh and assisted customers with more than $5 million in incentives and rebates to support sustainability and effi ciency. But Cleco’s reliability may be its strongest calling card: The only electric utility provider to meet Louisiana’s reliability standards for each of the last 26 years, Cleco in 2024 kept customer lights on over 99% of the time. Cleco Power Pineville, Louisiana Richard Cornelison, Director, Marketing and Economic Development www.clecodev.com SOUTH CENTRAL Corporate facility investment: $26.6 billion Jobs created: 3,866 Population and territory: The population of Entergy territory is 7,975,360 across 63 counties in Arkansas, 58 parishes in Louisiana, 45 counties in Mississippi, and 27 counties in Texas. Highlights: Around 50 project wins include two $10 billion data center campuses from Meta in Louisiana and from AWS in Mississippi, as well as a 625-job Sig Sauer investment in Jacksonville, Arkansas; Sempra’s $13 billion LNG expansion in Port Arthur, Texas, and numerous petrochemical and ammonia projects in Texas and Louisiana. Entergy’s strategic recruiting delivered 289 qualifi ed leads across its service area in 2024, including 117 in Louisiana, 40 in Arkansas, 111 in Mississippi, seven in New Orleans and 14 in Texas, the economic development team reports. Entergy Arkansas supported community applications for the state’s fi rst Site Development Grant program through the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, resulting in $10 million awarded to 13 communities, seven of which are served by Entergy. The Port of Little Rock also completed the Entergy Arkansas Select Site process in 2024. Meanwhile, Entergy Arkansas partnerships include work with the University of Central Arkansas to implement Community Catalyst projects in Vilonia and Mt. Ida in 2024; the Academies of Central Arkansas to provide hands-on learning experiences and energy industry career exploration for students; and a $100,000 commitment to support Ozarka College’s Technical Center expansion in Mountain View. Entergy Louisiana has proposed, funded and worked on 11 site development-related projects around Louisiana and now has 123 certifi ed sites available for economic development. Entergy Mississippi’s Excellerator grant program has awarded over $600,000 to more than 20 Mississippi communities over the past eight years, including a $50,000 grant in 2024 to support digital marketing and economic development training, as well as previous grants to support site development, strategic planning, and promotion eff orts, enabling these communities to invest in critical infrastructure. Entergy Corporation New Orleans, Louisiana Shantel Johnson, Senior Manager – Marketing goentergy.com SOUTH CENTRAL110 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION Corporate facility investment: $1.45 billion Jobs created: 2,403 Population and territory: The organization’s 17 cooperatives serve 1.2 million Kentucky residents across 46% of Kentucky’s geography or 89 of the 120 Kentucky counties. Highlights: Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives were able to secure 14 project announcements in 2024, Brad Thomas reports, including Canadian Solar’s e-storage subsidiary Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing LLC, which plans to build BESS electric grid batteries in Shelbyville, Kentucky. This project represented the largest new industrial announcement in Kentucky for 2024 in both investment ($712 million) and jobs (1,572). Other projects include Legacy Spirits’ $253 million project in Richmond (one of fi ve bourbon distillery investments); ThermoFisher Scientifi c’s $48 million, 15-job investment in Covington; and Mitsubishi Electric’s $144 million project in Maysville. “As for initiatives, we have been working closely with local, regional and state economic development organizations to develop multiple industrial site locations including mega sites across our cooperative service territories,” Thomas says. “Our team has worked to ensure all necessary utility infrastructure including electricity, water, sewer and gas are available with a plan to serve large-scale industrial projects. We have been working closely with the Site Selectors Guild’s REDI Site Program to certify some of these industrial sites through their national standardized site review process.” Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Winchester, Kentucky Brad omas, Manager for Economic Development DataIsPower.org SOUTH CENTRAL Corporate facility investment: $2.8 billion Jobs created: 3,113 Population and territory: Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve 1.3 million customers in a territory populated by 3.5 million people. Highlights: John Bevington notes that eff orts from LG&E and KU (LKE) helped Kentucky secure No. 5 in the nation in Site Selection’s 2024 Governor’s Cup per- capita rankings, with more than one-third of the statewide jobs and investment announcements set to occur in LKE service territories. Those same eff orts drove high rankings in this publication’s metro-area per-capita rankings for Lexington and for Louisville in their respective tiers, as well as placement among Top Micropolitans for Richmond, Corbin, Somerset, Campbellsville, Danville and Madisonville. “Project successes in our service territories span a wide range of industries, i.e., advanced manufacturing, EV battery production, logistics, health care, metals, food and beverage, agri-tech and bourbon distilling,” he writes. “To unify and amplify impact of our economic development eff orts, the companies established Opportunity KY (opportunityky.com) — a comprehensive platform designed to support site selectors and business prospects and promote our mission to fuel economic progress and community prosperity.” The initiative also encompasses grants to enhance community preparedness and a bill credit (economic development rider) that provides incentives to new and existing customers, enabling them to grow their operations and create new jobs. A total of more than $2.8 million in credits were awarded to such companies as Central Motor Wheel of America, Phoenix Paper, Manchester Tank, Danimer Scientifi c, Kruger Packaging, Bitiki-KY LLC, River View Coal LLC - Henderson County Mine, and UPS, supporting the creation of around 730 jobs. LG&E and KU Energy LLC Louisville, Kentucky John Bevington, Senior Director, Business and Economic Development www.lge-ku.com, www.OpportunityKY.com SOUTH CENTRAL112 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION Corporate facility investment: $4.5 billion Jobs created: 4,031 Population and territory: PowerSouth serves 39 counties in south Alabama and 10 counties in northwest Florida with a population of 3,361,419. Highlights: Projects in 2024 came from IAG Aero (“Project Spinner”) in Bay County, Florida ($107 million, 500 jobs); Paradigm Parachute in Pensacola, Florida ($10 million, 130 jobs); and Navy Federal Credit Union in Escambia County, Florida (500 jobs), among others. Successful projects so far this year have come from Williams International in Okaloosa, Florida ($1 billion, 336 jobs); Pulse Industries in Chipley, Florida ($5 million, 100 jobs); and Precision Measurement Inc. in Fort Walton Beach, Florida ($2 million), among others. Since its launch in 2018 the Strategic Sites Identifi cation (SSI) Program has identifi ed 598 new sites and 185,862 total acres for the following industrial uses: megasite, heavy industrial, light industrial, heavy agribusiness and general agribusiness. Last year the team’s business retention and expansion work involved 11 northwest Florida visits, 35 Alabama visits and 20 existing industry expansions in both states. PowerSouth Montgomery, Alabama Taylor Williams, Vice President, External Aff airs powersouth.com SOUTH CENTRAL Corporate facility investment: $10.5 billion Jobs created: 1,124 Population and territory: Mississippi Power serves a 23-county territory in southeastern Mississippi with a population of 1,032,432. Highlights: Projects attracted last year included Compass Datacenters’ $10 billion project in Meridian, PCC GulfChem’s $540 million, 84-job project in DeLisle, Mar Jac Poultry’s $25 million investment in New Augusta and Bar Pole & Piling Co.’s $10 million project in Quitman. In September 2024, Mississippi Power unveiled a new economic development website that allows users to fi nd information quickly and effi ciently while modernizing the way the information is relayed. Last year also saw the launch of the second year of the Propels Program, designed to provide communities fi nancial assistance toward site development, strategic planning or marketing eff orts, with funds able to be utilized to provide the fi nancial match requirement for the state’s site development program. Over the past two years, Mississippi Power has awarded over $800,000 to local communities to help further their economic development goals. The utility also contributes to commercial customers within the service area through the Commercial Investment Program, which provides grants for small business assistance, building improvements, franchise fee assistance and R&D tools for city and county recruitment eff orts. This program awarded $225,000 in 2024 to local cities, counties and small businesses. Mississippi Power Gulfport, Mississippi Brian Useforge, Economic Development Director mississippipowered.com SOUTH CENTRAL114 SEPTEMBER 2025 SITE SELECTION Corporate facility investment: $5 billion Jobs created: 7,983 jobs Population and territory: Southeast Gas serves over 32,000 customers,across 19 counties and 36 communities in southeastern Alabama. Highlights: In collaboration with NextEra Energy and the Coff ee County Landfi ll, Southeast Gas successfully commissioned Alabama’s fi rst Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) facility in New Brockton. According to NextEra Energy Resources, the Coff ee County RNG facility is projected to capture more than 16,500 metric tons of landfi ll methane annually. The construction and operation of the site created approximately 40 new jobs. As part of its 2024 Community Service Scholarship Program, Southeast Gas awarded $1,500 scholarships to 25 high school seniors from public schools within its service area. Since the program’s launch in 2015, Southeast Gas has provided over $325,000 in funding to 219 students. Last year the company supported public education by contributing $133,000 to 20 school systems across Alabama while the Southeast Gas Economic and Community Development team distributed $164,000 in Community Betterment Funds to 14 communities to enhance local infrastructure, public services and quality of life. “Additionally, Southeast Gas played a key role in assisting nine communities with SEEDS Round 2 applications, resulting in awards totaling $14.47 million,” writes Vince Perez. “These awards included four development grants and fi ve assessment grants, further driving economic development and environmental progress in the region.” Southeast Gas Andalusia, Alabama Vince Perez, Director of Economic Development southeastgas.com/economic-development/ SOUTH CENTRAL Corporate facility investment: $8.9 billion Jobs created: 10,368 Population and territory: With 16 metropolitan statistical areas, TVA’s 80,000-square-mile service region covers all of Tennessee and portions of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia, with 10 million people in that territory between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Mississippi River. Highlights: In partnership with state, regional and local economic developers and local power companies, TVA helped attract 10,368 new jobs, with 42,300 retained jobs and $8.9 billion in capital investment. Major highlights across nearly 50 projects include Orano’s multi-billion-dollar, 300-job investment in a uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge; a $54 million, 500-job investment in Haywood County, Tennessee from Avance, a supplier to Blue Oval City; Toyota Motor Manufacturing’s $282 million, 350-job investment in Madison County, Alabama; Liebherr’s $176 million, 180-job project in Tupelo, Mississippi; and Kentucky Aluminum Processors’ 40 million, 75-job investment in Russellville, Kentucky. After investing more than $22 billion in the power system over the past decade, TVA expects to invest more than $16 billion in the coming years to build generation and update the power and transmission systems. Through its $1.5 billion Energy Effi ciency and Demand Response program, TVA aims to off set about 30% of future load growth over the next decade, which will help lower power bills for customers. The TVA Board approved up to $350 million to explore development of a small modular reactor (SMR) at its Clinch River site in partnership with GE Hitachi, Ontario Power Generation and Synthos Green Energy New Fuels Development. TVA in August announced a partnership with Kairos Power and Google to launch a scalable, next-generation nuclear business model. “By becoming the fi rst U.S. utility to secure a power purchase agreement for electricity from a Gen IV reactor, TVA is leading the charge in reestablishing American leadership in nuclear energy,” TVA stated, noting it’s part of an overall deal between Kairos and Google to deliver 500 megawatts of advanced nuclear capacity by 2035. Since its inception in 20222, TVA’s Workforce Invest grant program has funded 44 projects with a combined investment of $5.9 million, with the expectation of impacting more than 5,000 trainees across the Valley. Meanwhile, programs like TVA’s InvestPrep, InvestReady and the industry’s fi rst certifi ed Megasite program “have helped shape the landscape of the communities TVA serves,” writes Joanna Muscatello, attracting projects like the nearly $2 billion investment from Amplify Cell Technologies in a 2,000-job battery cell production facility in Marshall County, Mississippi. Tennessee Valley Authority Nashville, Tennessee Joanna Muscatello, Coordinator, Global Business tvasites.com SOUTH CENTRALNext >