Georgia Power chairman, president and CEO Paul Bowers will retire from his role next year, the electric utility announced Thursday.

The company’s board of directors has elected Chris Womack to succeed Bowers, whose departure is scheduled to coincide with loading the nuclear fuel into the first reactor, Unit 3, at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro in April 2021.

Womack is the executive vice president and president of external affairs for Southern Company,