Perceive southern energies (3)
I believe the answer is:
see
'perceive' is the definition.
(I know that perceive is a more specific form of the action see)
'southern energies' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'energies' becomes 'ee' (an abbreviation for energy written twice).
's'+'ee'='SEE'
(Other definitions for see that I've seen before include "Envisage; ensure" , "Glimpse; get" , "Observe the bishop's jurisdiction" , "Get < court < witness" , "twig" .)