State regulators gave Georgia Power permission on Friday to massively expand its power plant facilities across the state, despite vocal opposition from environmental justice groups who argue the project — aimed at ensuring future data center owners have the energy they need to operate — could cause people’s energy bills to rise in the coming years.
The five-member Public Service Commission unanimously approved a stipulation agreement with Georgia Power at the request of the regulatory body’s public interest advocacy staff. A group of protesters interrupted the vote before being escorted out by law enforcement.
Some of the demonstrators who spoke during the public comment section of the meeting argued the stipulation agreement doesn’t do enough to ensure the bills of Georgia Power residential customers won’t rise to cover the multibillion-dollar project and that commissioners are doing the bidding of Georgia Power instead of the people who elected them.
“Nay! Nay! Nay! The people say ‘Nay!’” the activists chanted as an officer ordered them to leave the room.
The commissioners’ decision allows Georgia Power to expand its existing power plant infrastructure to generate an additional 10,000 megawatts of electricity in the coming years. The company, which provides electricity to an estimated 2.7 million people in Georgia — including most of metro Atlanta — says the plan is necessary for it to service a growing influx of data centers and other “large-load” customers expected to open operations in Georgia in the future.
Representatives from Georgia Power and the PSC told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday that the expansion will create “downward pressure” on pricing, resulting in typical residential customers saving $8.50 per month on their energy bill.
“It is the policy of the Public Service Commission to ensure that new data centers coming to Georgia will not affect existing rate payers and will be borne by the data centers that come,” PSC spokesman Tom Krause said.
The estimated cost of the proposal is $16 billion, according to records provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but the actual cost could be much higher.
“The growth that we’re experiencing with data centers and with large-load customers is new, but it’s just like the advent of air conditioning,” Georgia Power spokesperson Jacob Hawkins said on Wednesday. “We have to build out and make sure that energy is reliable and that it’s affordable. We are not taking our eye off the ball on affordability.”
The concentration of data centers in Black communities and the higher cost of energy have become critical issues for Black families, many of whom voted in November to oust two incumbent PSC commissioners — Republicans Fitz Johnson and Tim Echols. The pair lost their reelection bids in November to Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard, who ran campaigns largely centered on affordability. Hubbard was elected to fill the remainder of Johnson’s six-year term, which ends next December. He and Alicia Johnson won’t take office until January.
Hubbard and Republican PSC incumbent Tricia Pridemore will be up for reelection in November 2026 during a pivotal midterm election cycle. Voters’ perception of the economy and concerns about the cost of living are expected to play a decisive role in next year’s races, which also will decide the state’s next governor and who sits in one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats.
Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, said acting commissioners who support Georgia Power’s stipulation are giving voters “the middle finger.”
“It tells the Georgia voters, ‘We don’t care. Your vote doesn’t matter. We reject what you want. We’re going to do what we want anyway,’” she added.
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