Southern Company has been running a formal supplier diversity program since 1978. That is not a rounding-off date — it predates most Fortune 500 diversity programs by a decade. In 2023, $2.5 billion of the company's contract spend went to diverse suppliers, 29.1% of total procurement, up from 28.5% in 2022. The stated goal is 30% by 2025.
This is one of the larger programs in the Southeast, and it is real money distributed across the company's subsidiaries: Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Southern Company Gas, and Southern Power. Getting in requires a specific sequence of steps. Here is what that looks like.
The program: "Powering Our Success"
Southern Company's supplier diversity effort operates under the name Powering Our Success. It covers all operating subsidiaries and applies both to direct (Tier 1) contracts and to subcontracting opportunities through prime suppliers.
The company is a long-standing member of NMSDC and works with Southeast affiliates including the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council (GMSDC) and the Florida State Minority Supplier Development Council (FSMSDC). Membership in one of those councils and an MBE certification issued by them carries real weight in Southern Company's sourcing evaluations.
Southern Company has published an annual Moving to Equity report since 2020, tracking supplier inclusion alongside talent and community metrics. The 2023 edition showed 57 new diverse supplier partnerships added that year. The report is publicly available and worth reading before you reach out to anyone — it tells you which categories saw new activity and what the company's self-reported gaps are.
DiversityComm magazine ranked the program 12th nationally. That is a directionally useful data point, not a guarantee of anything, but it indicates the program has consistent infrastructure behind it.
Certifications that carry weight
Southern Company explicitly sources from suppliers holding these designations:
- MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) — issued by NMSDC affiliates, the primary credential for the Southeast market
- WBE (Women Business Enterprise) — issued by WBENC affiliates
- SDVOSB / VOSB (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned / Veteran-Owned Small Business) — federal designations through the VA or SBA
- HUBZone — SBA designation for businesses in historically underutilized geographic zones
- SDB (Small Disadvantaged Business) — SBA program, 8(a) certified firms qualify
- Small Business — federal size-standard certification through SBA
LGBTBE and DOBE certifications are recognized in Southern Company's broader supplier inclusion language, though MBE and WBE are the categories most frequently cited in their public reporting.
If you do not yet hold any of these, MBE certification through GMSDC is the highest-leverage starting point for a Georgia or Alabama-based business. The application runs $350–$500 annually depending on revenue tier, and GMSDC maintains a direct corporate membership relationship with Southern Company.
How to register
Southern Company uses SMART by GEP as its supplier management platform. Registration there is required before you can be considered for any sourcing opportunity.
Step 1. Go to southerncompany.com/about/suppliers and locate the supplier registration link. It takes you to Southern Company's Primary Registration Form (PRF) inside GEP SMART.
Step 2. Complete the Basic tab. Fields with a red asterisk are required. The second tab — labeled Registration — includes diversity classification questions and W-9/W-8 information. This is where you declare your certifications. Enter every valid certification you hold.
Step 3. Accept both GEP's and Southern Company's Terms of Use, then submit. You will receive an email to verify your account.
Completing registration does not guarantee a sourcing opportunity. The platform is a prerequisite, not a selection mechanism. Southern Company buyers search it when sourcing events open, so a complete, accurate profile matters.
If you have questions specific to Southern Company's process (not GEP's software), GEP support will escalate to Southern Company's procurement team. The fastest path is emailing the supplier diversity team directly — contact information is on the suppliers landing page — especially if you are targeting a specific subsidiary.
What they buy from diverse suppliers
Southern Company's procurement spans the full utility operations stack. The categories where diverse suppliers have documented placement include:
Construction and field services. Right-of-way clearing, erosion control, fencing, site preparation, paving, reforestation, building construction and repairs, painting, landscaping, and grounds maintenance. Environmental remediation is a documented category — Basha Services, an environmental firm in Norcross, Georgia, holds a Master Environmental Services Agreement with Georgia Power and has done ash pond work for Alabama Power as a Tier 2 supplier.
Electrical and materials supply. Cable and wire, conduit and fittings, electrical supplies, pipe, valves and fittings, gauges, and general hardware.
Professional and business services. Catering, security, janitorial, sewage tank services, and a range of professional services. The company's Minority Business Executive Program at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business focuses on businesses in this segment preparing to scale.
Subcontracting pathway. Southern Company requires prime contractors to extend subcontracting opportunities to diverse suppliers. If you cannot win a direct contract today, approaching the primes who hold Southern Company work is a legitimate and well-supported channel. Ask primes directly whether they have a Tier 2 diversity commitment in their Southern Company contract.
Getting to a contract: the practical sequence
Know the subsidiaries separately. Georgia Power, Alabama Power, and Southern Company Gas each have distinct procurement functions. A contact at Georgia Power cannot automatically route you to Alabama Power sourcing. Treat them as related but separate relationships.
Show up where the buyers are. Southern Company participates in the NMSDC annual conference and the GMSDC Annual Conference. These events have structured matchmaking — you request brief meetings with corporate members, and Southern Company typically sends procurement staff. A 15-minute scheduled meeting at GMSDC is worth more than six cold emails.
Other events where Southern Company has participated: WEConnect International forums (for WBE-certified companies), the Disability:IN annual conference, and regional PTAC-sponsored procurement fairs in Georgia and Alabama.
Direct outreach. Before you email the supplier diversity team, have two things ready: your SMART by GEP registration number, and a one-page capability overview that maps your NAICS codes to their known procurement categories. Generic outreach gets ignored. Specific outreach — "we do right-of-way clearing in the Alabama Power service territory, hold MBE certification through GMSDC, and are already registered in SMART" — gets a response.
Prime contractor relationships. Southern Company's primes — typically large infrastructure and construction firms — post their own subcontracting opportunities. Search for Southern Company-related work on SAM.gov if you are pursuing federal contract flow, and check the Georgia and Alabama state procurement portals for utility-related awards.
Dartmouth Tuck program. If your revenue is in the $1M–$10M range and you want to accelerate your positioning, the Minority Business Executive Program at Tuck is worth investigating. Southern Company sponsors participant slots. Completing the program puts you in a cohort the supplier diversity team actively tracks.
Timeline and what to expect
Register in GEP SMART: 1–2 hours to complete the form, 48–72 hours for account verification.
First sourcing event invitation: 3–18 months after registration, depending on your category and location. Utility procurement cycles are long. An approved vendor in a new category might wait a full fiscal year before a relevant RFP opens.
First contract: Most diverse suppliers describe a 12–24 month runway from initial registration to first paid work. Subcontracting through a prime moves faster — often 6–9 months if you are already working the prime relationships.
The program has been running since 1978 and has the infrastructure to support new suppliers. But infrastructure does not mean fast. Spend cycles at a $25B+ utility are planned 12–18 months out. Your job in the first year is to be in the system, be visible at the right events, and build the relationship before the RFP drops — not after.
Before you start
Two things worth doing before you spend time on any of the above.
Confirm your certifications are current. An expired MBE or WBENC certificate will show as lapsed in GEP SMART and will disqualify you from diversity-tracked spend.
Read the most recent Moving to Equity report (available on southerncompany.com). It tells you which supplier categories saw new activity, what the company's self-reported inclusion gaps are, and which subsidiaries are closest to their spend targets. That is 20 minutes of reading that most suppliers skip — and it will make every conversation you have with their team more productive.
