Georgia Power Secures PSC Approval For Historic 10 GW Expansion Amid Opposition
The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved a sweeping agreement giving Georgia Power permission to expand the state’s energy grid to 10 gigawatts by 2030 to accommodate an influx of data centers.
It is widely considered to be one of the largest, if not the largest, power grid expansions in the state’s history.
The decision wasn’t without drama. Just before the five commissioners were set to tally their votes, a crowd from the audience stood up and chanted, “Nay, nay, nay. The people say nay." The protestors were cleared from the room by security before the vote was taken.
Total data center capacity in Georgia has skyrocketed from more than 1,600 megawatts of existing projects in 2021 to a total pipeline of more than 19,600 MW this year.
Because of this continuing expansion, Georgia Power has projected that total regional power demand will triple by the mid-2030s. During Friday’s meeting, Troutman Pepper Locke partner Brandon Marzo, an attorney for Georgia Power, said the utility already has more than 7 GW under contract as of Friday.
PSC Commissioner Tim Echols said the expansion was necessary for Georgia’s future.
“This docket resolves the power that we need to keep the state moving forward until 2031,” he said following the vote.
Echols was one of two commissioners ousted by Democrat up-and-comers in the November election. Alicia Johnson defeated Echols, and Peter Hubbard beat Commissioner Fitz Johnson. Both of the victors’ campaigns centered on rising energy costs and angst over data center growth, experts previously told Bisnow.
Georgia Power has hiked rates, with the PSC’s approval, a handful of times since 2023, including a 3.5% increase in January. The latest hike added $5.48 to the typical household power bill, Georgia Recorder reported.
The five-member PSC approved that increase last year to help recoup $306M for infrastructure upgrades and new energy sources.
Georgia Power has already agreed not to raise base rates on existing customers through 2028. With the expansion vote, the company also agreed to backstop the cost of infrastructure spending between 2029 and 2031, even if data center projections do not come to fruition, according to a PSC press release.
“After reviewing all the written evidence, sworn testimony and public comments, I am confident this is a good deal for Georgians,” PSC Chairman Jason Shaw said in the release. “We share the public’s concerns about costs to provide energy to new large-load customers, including data centers. This agreement ensures data centers — or, if necessary, Georgia Power itself — will pay for this new infrastructure. Existing customers will not.”
Georgia Power’s expansion plan has been rife with controversy since it was first floated earlier this year. Critics argue the plan relies on carbon-based power expansion and have concerns that the cost of the expansion will ultimately be footed by Georgia Power customers and that the utility was overestimating its demand projections.
On Dec. 16, a report commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center provided competing data to undermine Georgia Power’s argument for the expansion's need.
Analytics and science policy research firms Greenlink Analytics and Science for Georgia ran over 100,000 simulations to project data center growth in the Southeast and found there was less than a 1% chance that data centers would grow at the rate Georgia Power has projected in the next five to six years.
The researchers predicted data centers will instead grow between 2.4 GW and 6.7 GW during that time. Bob Sherrier, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said Georgia Power’s projections likely will not materialize.
“Georgia Power can quibble about the definition of the word ‘speculative’ if it wants to, but a significant portion of these resources is for speculative load,” Sherrier said during Friday’s PSC meeting.
Sherrier requested that the PSC instead approve the expansion in stages, depending on how much of the power demand materializes.
The Sierra Club projected in a Friday press release that the total cost for the grid expansion would likely top $60B, or $45B more than Georgia Power has projected.
“This plan serves Georgia Power and fails the rest of us. Georgians will be forced to pay for this massive gas buildout for decades,” Sierra Club campaign organizing strategist Michael Hawthorne said in the release. “Shame on this commission for failing to provide even a token amount of oversight and choosing instead to give Georgia Power everything it asks for.”
In November, the Sierra Club and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy requested the PSC delay its vote until January, when the two new commissioners would be added to the board. The PSC board denied the request.
According to the PSC, organizations and parties can apply for reconsideration and a rehearing on the decision within 10 days.
