Georgia Utility Seeks Massive Grid Expansion To Feed Data Centers

The state’s largest power company’s $15 billion plan to meet ‘large-load’ demand spurs “cost shift’ fears among consumers who’ve seen six rate hikes since 2023.

Transmission lines flow at Georgia Power Co.’s Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant, in Waynesboro, Ga., on Jan. 20, 2023. AP Photo/John Bazemore

Georgia Power Company’s request to grow its grid by two-thirds of its current capacity within a decade to accommodate booming data center development will be debated during three days of public hearings in Atlanta before the Georgia Public Service Commission beginning Wednesday.

The company, Georgia’s largest and only rate-regulated utility with 2.8 million customers, plans to spend $15 billion to add 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new capacity—enough to power nine million homes—by 2035 under its 10-year Integrated Resource Plan approved by the commission in July.

While the plan is a broad outline, the specific proposal on the Dec. 10-12 docket is Georgia Power’s request to add up to 8,500 MWs between 2029 and 2031, the largest projected percentage increase in electricity demand over the next five years in any state nationwide except Texas, according to a November Grid Strategies analysis.

The five-seat commission, which also regulates telecommunications providers and natural gas companies but not the state’s 41 nonprofit electricity co-ops and 52 municipal-owned utilities, will issue it final decision on the proposal on Dec. 19.

Georgia Power now generates between 14,000 and 15,000 MWs in providing power in 155 of the state’s 159 counties. The 140-year-old company is the largest of 13 subsidiaries owned by Atlanta-based Southern Company, which provides power for nine million customers across six states and is the Southeast’s largest wholesale electricity provider.

The company said in testimony filed with the commission that 80 percent of the projected build-out will serve data center development, which will boost state and local economies, and “allow Georgia to contribute to the nation’s focus on the global importance of artificial intelligence and the digital economy.”

Microsoft, Meta, QTS, and Trammell Crow are among hyperscalers operating or building data centers in Georgia. According to Baxtel, a data center market tracker, 26 data centers are under construction and another 52 are planned within 60 miles of Atlanta.

Concerns over water and energy demands by “server farms” have prompted eight Georgia counties and cities to adopt moratoriums on data center development, including Atlanta, which in September 2024 prohibited data center projects within a 22-mile radius of its Beltline Overlay District.

That growing backlash is fueled by rising electricity costs. The commission has approved six Georgia Power rate increases since 2023—costing the average household an additional $500 a year, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center—prompting it in July to impose a moratorium on rate hikes through 2028.

Opponents, ranging from the Sierra Club to grassroots consumer advocacy groups, claim state “trade secret” statutes allow Georgia Power and data center developers to conceal how infrastructure capital improvements are financed and, ultimately, how much consumers will pay for the planned grid expansion.

Critics also argue the decision should be tabled until two new members join the commission on Jan. 1. In a November election, Democrats unseated Republican incumbents, marking the first time Democrats have won Georgia constitutional offices since 2006.

Electricity bills were key issues in November gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. New Jersey customers pay an average 19 percent more for electricity in 2025 than 2024, and Virginia utilities—after imposing 30 percent hikes from 2020-23—have received approval for rate increases up to 21 percent by 2027.

The off-year elections confirm growing angst over electricity bills could be a 2026 midterm elections factor. A March PowerLines/Ipsos poll found three in four Americans are concerned about rising utility bills, and an Oct. 20 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs survey showed 36 percent of U.S. adults stress over utility costs.

On Dec. 2, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein issued a statement opposing Duke Energy’s request for a 15 percent rate hike, citing concerns that increasing electricity demands “from large industrial users” is being shifted “onto the backs of regular people.”

Data Centers.com, a global “technology marketplace” headquartered in Colorado, shows the locations of 2,483 data centers currently in operation in the United States. Illustration by The Epoch Times

‘Cost Shifts’

The commission maintains it addressed concerns about “cost shifts” with its January adoption of rules that ensure data centers pay for building new power plants and transmission lines.

Under the new regulatory matrix, new customers using more than 100 MWs of electricity will be billed “using terms and conditions beyond those used for standard customers” and that data center developers will pay for all site-specific costs, and for additional transmission and distribution networks needed to serve their projects.

The rules also allow for longer contract lengths, up to 15 years, to ensure new large-load customers do not shut down and leave the state before paying for infrastructure built specifically to accommodate their needs.

Despite these assurances, consumer advocates argue “cost shifts” from developers to rate-payers are allegedly incorporated in confidential contracts negotiated with Georgia Power, which has refused to disclose details of these agreements, claiming they are ”trade secrets” under Georgia statute.

In May, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion on behalf of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light and Southface Energy Institute challenging Georgia Power’s “trade secrets assertion,” seeking—among other disclosures—“specific overall contribution of different classes of customers” to its income and what “basic assumptions” Georgia Power uses to project costs associated with different electricity consumers.

The motion argued Georgia Power has not demonstrated that disclosing details of its contracts with developers would cause the company and its large-load customers financial harm

After a July 15 hearing, the commission denied the motion, upholding Georgia Power’s contention that its confidentiality agreements are not only shielded under Georgia law, but a commission rule that requires a utility “provide by written affidavit the legal and factual basis for its assertion that the protected information is a trade secret and should not be disclosed.”

Georgia Power has complied with that rule, the commission said, noting the company is not required to “demonstrate actual harm,” only “actual or potential” harm if confidential contract details are disclosed.

The commission’s own staff, however, has raised several concerns about Georgia Power’s expansion plans with two analyses that question guarantees residential customers and businesses won’t shoulder costs associated with such a massive buildout.

“If the market shifts or the company’s forecasted large load does not materialize, [Georgia Power] will still seek to recover those costs,” Commission Electric Unit Director Robert Trokey said in testimony filed Nov. 12 for the December hearings. “Without executed contracts under the new large load framework, there is no guarantee those costs will not be passed on to existing customers.”

Commission Utility Finance Director Tom Newsome, in testimony filed Nov. 13, said as much as $3.5 billion of the projected $15 billion cost for the buildout could be passed along to existing consumers—a hike of about $20 a month for the average Georgia Power household customer.

Neither report supports granting Georgia Power’s request to add up to 8,500 MWs by 2031, instead recommending it only allow it to expand by 30 percent to 40 percent of that request and instead of building new power plants, purchase the power from preexisting sources, including those not owned by the company.

The company, in rebuttal testimony filed Nov. 27, said the claims made in both analyses are inaccurate, stating its “portfolio approach” in assessing grid expansion costs and assigning those expenses to those benefiting most provide “the best mechanism to lower costs for customers.”

“With staggered commercial operation dates across projects and portfolios, the company structures construction and cost management strategies to implement lessons learned in real time to reduce costs to customers,” it said.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the beginning date of the public hearings before the Georgia Public Service Commission. The Epoch Times regrets the error.