Can I choose which electric company serves my land in Alabama?

Generally not. Alabama law assigns service areas to electric suppliers, so the tract's location decides who serves it. It may be Alabama Power, an electric cooperative, or a city utility. Ask the utility you think serves the area to confirm it before you buy.

Does Alabama Power run a power line to a new house for free?

Up to a point. Under its filed rules, Alabama Power will invest up to $5 in new facilities for each $1 of estimated yearly revenue from a permanent residential customer. If the job costs more than that, the customer pays the difference plus a time value charge. Only the utility can tell you where your tract lands, so ask for a written estimate.

What is a contribution in aid of construction?

It is the money a customer pays toward the cost of building the utility's lines when the job costs more than the utility will cover. Alabama Power's rules call it CIAC. The two co-op bylaws we read use the same term, and each co-op sets its own amounts.

Do I have to give the power company an easement on my land?

Yes, in practice. Alabama Power's rules say an applicant for service grants the company the rights of way it needs across the customer's property. Co-op bylaws we read grant or ask for the same kind of easement. If the line has to cross a neighbor's land, the neighbor has to grant that part.

Is underground power more expensive than overhead?

Usually, yes. Alabama Power's standard service is overhead, and for underground service from overhead lines its rules say the company collects any cost difference between the two in advance. Ask for both prices when you request an estimate.

Does a big power line across my land mean I can get power from it?

Not as a rule. A large line on tall towers is usually a transmission line, which carries power between substations. Alabama Power's rules say customers requesting service from its transmission system may require individual consideration. A house normally gets power from the smaller distribution lines along roads, so treat a transmission line as an easement to work around.

How Do You Get Power to a Vacant Alabama Tract, and Who Pays to Run the Line?

The utility won't run a line anywhere you build for free. How to find who serves a tract, what its extension rules make you pay, and what to ask before closing.

You get power to a vacant tract by asking the one utility assigned to serve that ground, and its written line extension rules decide who pays. The utility covers part of the cost of new line. When the job costs more than its rules allow, you pay the rest. You'll also need to give the utility a right-of-way across your land, and maybe across a neighbor's, before a pole goes up.

The Map Decides Which Company Serves the Tract

For a house, you generally don't get to shop for an electric company in Alabama. Alabama Power's service territory page says that Alabama law "provides for assigned service areas." The official maps are on file at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

So the first question is whose territory the tract sits in. It could be Alabama Power, one of the state's electric cooperatives, or a city utility. A co-op is owned by its members, who are the customers it serves. Alabama Power's page links its territory maps and a customer service number for questions about a given location. Use them to find out, and don't assume from a neighbor's bill.

The answer matters because the rules change with the utility. The Alabama Public Service Commission says so on its electricity page. "Only one electric utility, Alabama Power Company, falls under the Commission's regulatory authority, as cooperatives and municipal systems are exempt from state regulation." A co-op sets its own rules through its board and bylaws. Alabama Power's rules are filed with and approved by the state.

The Utility's Written Rules Decide Who Pays

Your share comes from a written policy. The PSC's General Rules say each utility it regulates must keep "an acceptable policy for extensions of its service" on file. That policy covers extensions "for which the customer shall be required to pay all or part of the cost." That policy "shall be the basis upon which a customer's cost for such extensions will be paid."

Alabama Power's policy is in its Rules and Regulations for Electric Service, the version effective October 4, 2022. We read it in October 2026. Here is what it says, in plain terms:

If the company's line is already on the pole next to your site, it runs the service wires and sets the meter. Rule 4.4 says "the Customer shall not be charged for this connection."
When a new line has to be built, Rule 4.7 says the company will invest up to $5 for each $1 of estimated yearly revenue from a permanent residential customer. If the new facilities cost more than that, "the Customer shall make a payment equal to the amount by which the estimated cost of such new facilities exceeds the allowable investment," plus a charge the rules call the Time Value of Money Allowance.
The rules call your payment a contribution in aid of construction, or CIAC. It's money you pay toward the cost of the utility's line.

To show how the ratio works, take a round number that is not an estimate for any real house. If the company expects a home to bring in $1,000 a year in base revenue, it would spend up to $5,000 on the new line. Past that, the cost is yours. There is no flat free footage in this rule. The allowance depends on the expected bill and the cost of the job.

Co-ops work the same way in outline, with their own numbers. Central Alabama Electric Cooperative's bylaws tie a service connection to the membership fee plus any deposit, "facilities extension deposit, or contribution in aid of construction" the co-op asks for. Each co-op keeps its dollar amounts in its own policies, so ask for them.

A Part-Time Cabin, Underground Line, or Tower Line Changes the Math

Alabama Power's rules have a few details that hit land buyers directly.

A part-time cabin counts less. Rule 4.7.2 applies the same 5:1 ratio to secondary residences that qualify for the residential rate, but with the yearly revenue cut to match how much you'll use the place. The rule's own example halves the revenue for a home used about six months a year. Less expected revenue means a smaller allowance, so you'd pay more of the line. A hunting tract with no house on it may not count as residential at all, so ask what class the service would fall in.

The utility looks at your finances and at who might use the line after you. Before it commits to a line extension, Rule 4.6 lets the company consider things like your financial stability and whether a later customer would likely use the service.

Standard service is overhead, from the front of the lot. Rule 4.7 says residential customers get "standard front-lot overhead service." If you want service at a point the company doesn't consider satisfactory, you pay for the extra facilities. For underground service from overhead lines, Rule 5.3.1 says the company "shall collect in advance any cost differential between underground and overhead service." Burying the line to keep the view clean is a choice you pay for.

A big line across the tract may not help. Power lines on tall towers carry electricity between substations, and a house is rarely served from them. Rule 4.1 says anyone asking for service from the transmission system "may require individual consideration." Ask the utility where the nearest road line runs, and plan around the tower line's easement.

The Line Needs a Right-of-Way, Sometimes Across a Neighbor

Poles and wire sit on land, and the utility needs the right to put them there and come back to maintain them. That right is an easement, a legal right to use part of someone else's land for a set purpose.

Alabama Power's Rule 1.10 says that by applying for service, the customer "grants and agrees to provide to the Company the rights, ways and rights of way necessary" across "the Customer's property." Co-ops ask the same. CAEC's bylaws have members sign grants of easement that include "the right to cut or trim trees on the right-of-way." Coosa Valley Electric Cooperative's 2025 bylaws go further. They grant a "perpetual, non-exclusive easement" across a member's land that runs with the land and binds later owners.

Your grant covers your land. It can't cover a neighbor's. If the tract sits back from the road, the line has to cross someone else's ground, and that owner has to grant the easement. They can say no. We cover that problem from the driveway side in Is This Tract Landlocked. A written access easement doesn't always cover utilities, so read it before you count on it.

This is why road frontage matters so much for power. We know of no public map that shows the small distribution lines, so road frontage is the best screen we have. In Shelby County, 68.2 percent of the undeveloped parcels LandScout scores front a public road for at least 50 feet, according to the Shelby County numbers (export of October 1, 2026). The rest show no mapped road frontage, and power to them may have to cross private land.

Call the Utility With the Parcel Number Before You Close

We grew up hearing about a landowner who laid a mile of water line alone to save the contractor's fee. It broke underground, the meter counted every gallon, and the bill came to about $2,000. The lesson carries over to power. The tie-in is the buyer's problem, and the time to price it is before closing. The full story is in Where Does the Water Line Tie In.

Before you get in the truck, find the parcel number. Then:

Call the utility you think serves the area and confirm the tract is in its territory.
Give it the parcel number and where you'd put the house, and get a written estimate of your share.
Compare overhead and underground prices side by side.
Find out which easements it needs, and whether any must come from a neighbor.
Learn the deposits, fees, and wait from payment to power.

On the ground, walk the road frontage. Look for the nearest pole and whether it carries a transformer (the can-shaped drum that steps power down for a house). Note the distance from it to your house spot. It tells you nothing exact, but a pole at the road reads differently from a road with no poles in sight.

Then make the deal depend on the answer. Write the contract so you can walk away if the power estimate comes back out of reach. It's the same habit as making the perc test a condition of the sale.

Each tract in LandScout shows road frontage, the likely utility, and any mapped transmission lines, and the plans are on one page.