Rising Power Costs, Data Center Anxiety Helped Elect Democrats To The Georgia PSC

Georgia voters issued a rebuke against the state’s utilities regulatory authority by electing two Democrats to the board of the Public Service Commission, which for years had been overseen exclusively by Republican commissioners. 

The two Democrats ran campaigns focused on consumers’ wallets and the need to combat rising electricity prices. Political observers say the surge in data centers in Georgia — and their collective consumption of power — likely played a role in the election outcome for the commission.  

Before Tuesday’s victory, Democrats hadn’t won a nonfederal statewide post since 2006.

In the election, Democrat Alicia Johnson defeated incumbent Tim Echols, a Republican who has been on the board since 2011. Democrat Peter Hubbard also unseated incumbent Fitz Johnson, a 2021 Gov. Brian Kemp appointee to the PSC. 

The two races weren’t close. 

Johnson, a managing principal with Health Management Associates, and Hubbard, a clean energy advocate, each won with more than 62% of the vote in their respective races. 

Throughout the country, a wide swath of the electorate voted because of economic concerns, exit polls have shown. Voters expressed concern about the high cost of living, rising economic inequality and stubborn inflation. Unlike in other recent elections, however, they tended to blame Republicans more than Democrats for these problems, according to polling. 

President Donald Trump vowed during his campaign to end inflation on the first day of his presidency, but inflation has continued. This irked voters, whose purchasing power shrank, University of Georgia Political Science Chair Charles Bullock said.

While inflation came down slightly in the early days of Trump’s second administration, it has since climbed back up.

“It hasn’t been controlled, and utility costs fit in with that,” Bullock told Bisnow. 

Georgia Power has hiked rates, with the PSC’s approval, a handful of times since 2023, including a 3.5% rate hike in January. The latest hike added $5.48 to the typical household power bill, the Georgia Recorder reported. 

The five-member PSC approved that hike last year to help recoup $306M from ratepayers for infrastructure upgrades and new energy sources. 

Georgia Democrats seized on rising energy bills over the summer, campaigning on “My power bill is too high,” a message that appeared to have resonated with voters, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution election analysis.

Some of those frustrated with higher energy costs have increasingly grown concerned about data centers’ strain on the power grid, and that likely played a role in voter behavior, Bullock said. 

The new PSC members arrive as policy on data centers’ electricity use to power artificial intelligence is taking shape.

“In my mind, [the new PSC members] have a bigger impact on data centers and the future of data centers in Georgia,” said Lisa Hurd, chief investment officer of the commercial real estate firm The Radco Cos.

Largely because of the influx of new data center operators, Georgia Power is seeking approval from the PSC to expand its power grid by 10 gigawatts between 2028 and 2031 at a cost of $16B, The Guardian reported.

Both Georgia Power and the PSC changed the rules earlier this year to allow the commission to charge data center operators the full costs of servicing them with electricity, including oversight of new data center contracts, the AJC reported.

But skepticism remains, and that may have played a role in the PSC election on Tuesday, Windsor Stevens Holdings founder Rod Mullice told Bisnow. Mullice said he expects that the PSC, with the two new members, will likely place more scrutiny on data centers.

“I do know data centers are getting a lot of questions these days,” he said. “It’s going to be a delicate balance between quality of life and economic development for data centers in the future.”