As Power Demand Surges, Who Will Light Up the New Electric Age?

The adage “you can mine for gold or you can sell pickaxes” has become as stale a stock phrase as any in the lingo-loaded startup world, but its inner wisdom prevails—it’s derived from a Mark Twain quote, after all.

As the new gold rush of AI sets the tempo of our hopes and fears, one proverbial pickaxe dominates the field: the semiconductor chip, which enables generative AI models like ChatGPT. With so much ink spilled over these little devils and the gargantuan profits they’ve returned, it’s easy to miss the downstream opportunities for growth. Everyone and their sister is aware of Nvidia, but how many of us have heard of Southern Company?

Southern Co. is the second largest utility company in the U.S., servicing over 9 million consumers with electricity across six states. The Atlanta-based company’s largest subsidiary, Georgia Power, has recently projected energy growth for the Peach State of roughly 6,600 Megawatts through 2031. That’s up from their 2022 growth projection of just 400 Megawatts over the decade, marking a 17X upward revision less than two years after their initial estimate.

So what’s driving the massive growth in electrical payload needs? Electric vehicles, the resurgence of crypto, and cloud computing, sure, but top of the list: the explosion of generative AI and the data centers the emergent tech relies on. These facilities are densely packed with high performance servers that power AI applications like large language models. And what powers the data centers? Electricity. Gigawatts of it.

A recent Goldman Sachs report notes that while the annual growth rate of power demand remained near zero in the last decade, the period through 2030 will see a 2.4% CAGR. Roughly 8% of that demand will come from data centers. The map below shows a regional projection of data center expansion by 2027, with 120% growth expected in the Southeast.

Turning to the jobs data on LinkUp Compass, we’d expect to see a pattern of hiring growth across the electric utility industry. Instead, only one of the major utilities appears poised to meet the burgeoning demand: our friends in Atlanta, Southern Co.

Per our index below of daily active listings at seven of the leading utilities in the U.S., Southern Co. is hiring for new roles at a significantly higher rate than competitors.

Funneling down the data stream, we find that Southern Co. is the only one of its peers hiring for Construction roles at a consequential level. In fact, over 40% of their recent job openings are for Construction professionals and supervisors. Looks like the lights won’t be going out in Georgia any time soon.

This hiring trend picked up at Southern near the end of last year, around the time that its lead subsidiary, Georgia Power, originally filed its revised projections for 17X growth in power demand in the state. You can see the evident spike in construction hiring since the end of 2023 in the Compass Occupation Detail graph below.

While Southern Co. is the only major utility currently hiring at the speed of projected power demand, we expect to see an uptick in their competitors’ job openings within the next year. In the meantime, analysts would do well to consider the growth potential of Southern Co. as they take up the mantle of “Build, baby, build!”

Keep ahead of the company curve and identify companies positioned for growth with LinkUp Compass: it’s the job market, now in living color. And stay tuned for more of our Notes from The Evidence Lab, where we showcase the engaging interface and unmatched granularity of our job market dataset.

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