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Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Delayed PSC races heat up as candidates take aim at Georgia Power rate hikes, data center growth
The QTS data center complex is under development in Fayetteville. QTS, the data-center developer that Blackstone bankrolls, complex is expected to consume as much electricity as about a million US households leaving utility Georgia Power rushing to build the infrastructure to meet demand. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images Several candidates are vying to defeat a pair of incumbent Republican Georgia Public Service commissioners in an election that challengers say will become a referendum on rising Georgia Power bills. Consumer watchdogs worry that the state's largest utility will continue to raise rates on residential customers as it girds for a wave of data center growth that will spike demand for electricity over the next decade. Qualifying for the Public Service Commission races wrapped up Thursday with Commissioner Tim Echols, who represents a wide swath of east Georgia, and Commissioner Fitz Johnson, who represents metro Atlanta, declaring their reelection bids. Echols will face challenger Lee Muns in the June 17 Republican Primary for the commission's District 2 seat. The winner of the GOP primary will advance to a Nov. 4 general election against Savannah Democrat Alicia Johnson, who is unopposed in her primary. This fall, Johnson will face the winner of the June 17 District 3 Democratic primary between DeKalb County clean energy advocate Peter Hubbard, former Atlanta state Rep. Keisha Sean Waites, technology advisor Robert Jones and Daniel Blackman, who will wage a second campaign after narrowly losing the 2020 election in a runoff to longtime Commissioner Lauren 'Bubba' McDonald. The PSC general election will be included on ballots for the Nov. 4 municipal election. The statewide election is taking place on an irregular schedule for PSC races that typically result in staggered six-year terms in five commission districts. This year's primary and general election will mark the first time since 2020 PSC contests will appear on Georgia ballots. Echols' 2022 election was delayed by a lawsuit challenging the commission's at-large district election process as being unfair to Black voters. Commissioners represent – and must reside in – one of the five districts but are elected statewide. This years' PSC candidates said they'll work hard to drum up interest because turnout will be lower than when there are higher profile races for governor, Congress, and the White House on the ballot. The challengers said they'll be campaigning as the best candidate to fight on behalf of the public in Georgia Power cases that the current five member Republican commissioners have routinely given the green light to increase utility costs and fossil fuels. Echols, who is running for his third term on the PSC, said he'll campaign on his support of Georgia Power's reinvestment in its power grid and natural gas system. Echols said he's been supportive of clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and solar energy and is proud of voting in favor of increasing affordability initiatives for Georgia Power seniors and low-income customers. 'We also want to continue to make Georgia the best place to do business because when these companies come they provide jobs and when companies compete like Hyundai and Gulfstream in Savannah, the consumer wins because they make more per hour,' he said. Through his career in the construction industry, Muns says he learned how to build power plants in the most cost-effective way. Muns served five years on the Georgia Professional Standards Commission and is a former Columbia County school board member. Muns said state regulators will have important decisions to make on the growth of mega data centers, the driving force in Georgia Power's 2025 calls for significantly increasing its energy capacity over the next decade. 'In Georgia, we've got aging facilities,' Muns said. 'We're fortunate. We've got two nuclear power plant reactors that have come on board. But the thing that's concerned me as I followed that process was the significant (Plant Vogtle) cost overruns.' Alicia Johnson said her 25 years of policy advocacy in Savannah will help her pursuit of more clean, sustainable, and affordable energy in Georgia. She criticized the commission's approval of six Georgia Power rate hikes since the start of 2022. 'We believe that the underlying costs can be assumed by the companies themselves and not rolled over into the homes of everyday Georgia citizens who are now choosing between prescriptions and groceries, who are making choices between, paying their rent or their mortgage and getting gas,' Johnson said. Fitz Johnson was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021 to fill a vacancy on the commission and will stand for reelection for the first time. Heading into his first bid to keep his seat on the regulatory panel, Fitz Johnson acknowledges the pushback from many Georgia Power customers about higher utility bills. He said it's important for the PSC to properly balance the needs of ratepayers while Georgia Power's long-term Integrated Resource Plan case and the electric rate cases are decided this year. 'As part of our rule with the data centers… they are going to have to guarantee that contract so we don't have the overbuild of infrastructure,' Johnson said. 'Georgia Power, and I'm sure the power companies around the state, are doing a lot of pre-planning to make sure that we don't overextend ourselves, to make sure that the fit is just right.' Johnson attributed some of the rising utility costs to inflation and said he hopes to see rates stabilize under the Trump administration. Blackman spent the last few years serving under President Joe Biden as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency where he implemented $3.5 billion in federal funding for projects that includes electrifying school buses and for water infrastructure in DeKalb County. He said he aims to add new transparency to the extent that data centers are boosting household utility rates, while advocating for low-income energy assistance programs and helping build a secure electric grid that makes up the network of infrastructure that powers homes and businesses. 'Our grid is extraordinarily important,' Blackman said. 'Whether we're protecting it from a national security risk or an extreme weather event, my goal is to campaign on a platform that ensures we can have a reliable grid without overburdening the ratepayers.' Waites is an Atlanta Democrat who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2012 to 2017. She resigned from the House in September 2017 to make a run for chair of the Fulton County Commission before finishing in second place. After being elected to the Atlanta City Council in 2021, Waites resigned in 2024 to launch a bid for Fulton County Superior Court clerk. Hubbard, who works as a clean energy advocate for nonprofit Georgia Center for Energy Solutions, said he is running for the District 3 seat since the PSC 'ignores' evidence he's presented while intervening in Georgia Power Company's Integrated Resource Plan cases since 2019. Hubbard has pledged in campaign statement that he 'will put an end to the grift and disinformation that are raising your power bills.' 'Residential power bills in Georgia have gone up $60 per month in just the last three years. This is because the current Public Service Commission approves each fossil fuel plan that Georgia Power Company gives it,' Hubbard said. Robert Jones said he's prepared to become the District 3 state regulator after gaining experience in energy and communications regulation in California. He criticizes the current commission's decisions allowing Georgia Power to shift some construction cost risks to consumers and the company's fight against the expansion of household rooftop solar power growth. Jones said as commissioner he would advocate for rooftop solar and reducing fossil fuel use. 'I think as an investor-owned profit making utility, they should assume more of the risk for their capital investments,' Jones said. 'I think the commission erred by rejecting net metering on solar power. Rooftop solar power is where we need to be going in Georgia. It's not a threat to Georgia Power.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Georgia Power to argue new long-term plan to PSC after Legislature stalls consumer-friendly bills
The QTS data center complex under development in Fayetteville, Georgia, US, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. QTS, the data-center developer that Blackstone bankrolls, complex is expected to consume as much electricity as about a million US households leaving utility Georgia Power rushing to build the infrastructure to meet demand. Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images The Georgia Public Service Commission is scheduled to begin hearing testimony later this month from Georgia Power officials about how the state's largest utility plans to spend billions of dollars to meet its skyrocketing energy demand, primarily due to the projected growth of large data centers supporting artificial intelligence. State regulators have set aside multiple days for hearings on Georgia Power's long-term 2025 Integrated Resource Plan. Company officials estimate that 80% of its projected increased energy demand over the next decade is tied to expected new data centers growth in the state. Georgia Power is projecting electrical load growth will increase by 8,200 megawatts by 2030, representing an increase of 2,200 megawatts compared to its forecast in the 2023 Integrated Resource Plan update. One megawatt can power about 600 homes. The latest demonstration of the growing interest from prospective data center companies emerged last week with an application filed with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a massive data center in Troup County. The Project West proposal is for a 513-acre data center campus comprising six industrial buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet. The centers house computer servers and typically require a large supply of electricity to run. 'Georgia's economy is continuing to grow, which increases the need for electricity in businesses and factories,' a panel of Georgia Power executives said in March 10 testimony filed with the PSC. 'The state's population is also growing, leading to more electricity use in homes. The rise in large commercial and industrial customers, such as data centers and manufacturing plants, is contributing to the new demand. Also, the adoption of electric vehicles, both for personal and business use, is steadily driving up electricity consumption.' Georgia Power regularly updates every three years its Integrated Resource Plan, which is the company's 20-year comprehensive plan for meeting the needs of current and future customers. The hearings on the latest plan will being March 25. Georgia lawmakers, clean energy and consumer advocacy groups are concerned about state regulators signing off on Georgia Power's repeated utility bill increases as the investor-owned utility has passed along to ratepayers new electricity base rates, overrun costs associated with building two new Vogtle nuclear power plant units, coal ash cleanup and other expenses. All told, the average Georgia Power household is paying about $43 more per month on utility bills since the start of 2020. Georgia Power is the largest supplier of electricity in the state, with about 2.7 million customers. A pair of major cases will be settled by the five elected members of the state regulatory commission this year, which will affect Georgia Power ratepayers' pocketbooks as well as determine the mix of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources the company will use to generate electricity for the next few years. During PSC proceedings, environmental organizations, consumer protection nonprofits, manufacturers, and other groups offer expert testimony and perform cross examinations of witnesses. Earlier this month, Georgia legislation intended to protect residential consumers from rising utility costs associated with data centers failed to advance out of the House and Senate chambers ahead of the critical March 6 Crossover Day deadline. State senator pushes bill to protect Georgia Power customers from rate hikes fueled by data centers The full Senate did not hold a chamber floor vote on two bills sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, a Rome Republican who says rising utility and property tax bills are the two most common complaints he hears from Georgians. Hufstetler said Saturday that a data center amendment likely doomed the passage of his Senate Bill 94, which would re-establish a utility consumer advocacy office that provides legal and financial resources for residential consumers and small businesses in electric rate cases and other utility matters. Hufstetler said he was unable to get a full Senate vote on his consumer utility counsel bill despite having 45 out of 56 senators' support for his amendment to prevent utility companies from passing data center costs along to residential and small business customers, who have been handed six rate increases since the beginning of 2022. He said he plans to continue to advocate in future sessions for his bill to re-establish the consumer utility counsel that was abolished in statewide budget cuts mandated by Gov. Sonny Perdue during the 2008 recession. In the absence of the counsel, consumers depend on the PSC staff to represent ratepayer interests. Hufstetler criticized Georgia Power for overbuilding in a way that allows the company's shareholders to maximize profits and called for the commission to hold the company accountable for rising costs. 'I did say I'll pull the amendment if that'll get the utility counsel but then it ran out of time so it didn't happen,' Hufstetler said. 'I'm certainly disappointed that with the majority of the senators wanting this bill that wasn't allowed to be on the Senate floor and get passed. 'On the other hand, we had numerous statements from both the PSC and Georgia Power that they would not pass on any of these costs to the residential and small business customers,' Hufstetler said. 'At the same time, they didn't like my bill, which said exactly that, but I think we can certainly hold them accountable for their numerous statements that they would not pass down this cost.' Representatives with Georgia Power and the Data Center Coalition said they opposed Senate Bill 34 because it would give the state Legislature control over a ratemaking process that is typically handled by the elected five-member PSC. They argued that new rules that apply to data center adopted by the PSC are sufficient to prevent residential and commercial customers from getting stuck with costs incurred to serve data centers. The new rules include a provision allowing Georgia Power to require data center companies to put up front-end collateral for energy costs over the lifetime of the contract. If the company abandons the project prior to the contract expiring, then Georgia Power would keep the remaining money owed. Another utility-related bill that failed to advance by the Legislature's Crossover Day deadline was Woodstock Republican Rep. Jordan Ridley's House Bill 446, which would have granted discovery rights to all parties at PSC hearings, giving stakeholders new authority to request information during electric rate cases and other utility proceedings. Allison Kvien, Vote Solar's Southeast regulatory director, criticized Georgia lawmakers who failed to increase transparency at a time when many people are struggling to pay higher energy bills. 'HB 446 would have allowed all stakeholders to better advocate for policies that encourage economic development and access to affordable, clean energy in commission proceedings' Kvien said. 'Georgia Power shouldn't be the only one with a seat at the table – Georgia households and businesses deserve to give informed input into decisions about their energy future.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State senator pushes bill to protect Georgia Power customers from rate hikes fueled by data centers
The QTS data center complex is under development in Fayetteville. QTS, the data-center developer that Blackstone bankrolls, complex is expected to consume as much electricity as about a million US households leaving utility Georgia Power rushing to build the infrastructure to meet demand. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images Georgia Power, a national data center association, and clean energy groups are divided over the need for legislation that would prevent state-regulated utilities from raising electricity rates to cover the costs of energy-guzzling data centers. Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, a Rome Republican, said he filed Senate Bill 34 in order to protect residential and commercial ratepayers from getting hit with higher utility bills because of large-scale utility company investments to meet the energy demands of artificial intelligence. The Senate Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities held a hearing last week on a measure that prohibits the Georgia Public Service Commission from changing any utility rates because of costs incurred providing electric services to commercial data centers. Georgia Power executives have said that 80% of its projected increased energy demands over the next decade is tied to prospective data centers opening in the state. Georgia Power is projecting electrical load growth will increase by 8,200 megawatts by 2030, representing an increase of 2,200 megawatts compared to its forecast in the 2023 Integrated Resource Plan update. Representatives with Georgia Power and the Data Center Coalition said they oppose the way SB 34 gives the state Legislature control over a ratemaking process that is typically handled by the five-member PSC. Supporters of the measure give credit to the PSC for passing a new rule in January creating new protections for Georgia Power ratepayers against the influx of energy-hungry data centers, but push for more safeguards from the state. Hufstetler said his bill provides more ironclad protections than the PSC rule. 'The two things I hear most from everybody right now are property taxes and electricity bills,' he said. 'I know the PSC would like to keep the Legislature out of this, but I think this is just too huge of an issue for us not to make sure we're taking care of the citizens.' Following Thursday's 90-minute Senate hearing, Sen. Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican who chairs the committee, said further debate about about the proposal is needed before a decision is made on if it will advance in the Legislature. 'We're really going into a new frontier,' he said. 'You've had two mega data centers so far, you've got 10 more already on the books and it's the wild, wild west going on as they're exploding in growth.' The new data center rule authorizes Georgia Power to enact contractual agreements with companies that will use 100 megawatts of power. It allows the utility company to 'appropriately assign' to data centers the costs of providing them electric service. The rule also gives Georgia Power the ability to require data center companies to put up front-end collateral for energy costs over the lifetime of the contract. If the company abandons the project prior to the contract expiring, then Georgia Power would keep the remaining money owed. The PSC is also requiring that it reviews new agreements with large load customers within 30 days of being signed. The commission is set to vote in July on the investor-owned utility's 2025 long-term roadmap of providing a mix of energy and infrastructure to serve 2.7 million customers and Georgia's growing industrial base. Georgia Power is expected to file a new rate case with the PSC in 2025 asking to recover costs to serve its customers over the next three years. Environmental and consumer advocacy groups have raised alarms about Georgia Power's long-term plan that would significantly expand its reliance on fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil. They also express concerns about how potentially higher fuel costs and other expenses will further burden the typical Georgia Power household and small business owner. Since 2023, the average Georgia Power residential customers is paying $43 more per month following a series of increase to base electric rates, to recover excess fuel expenses, and complete two of the newest nuclear power generators at Plant Vogtle. Bob Sherrier, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said Thursday one large data center can consume over 1,000 megawatts and the potential demand from the industry could potentially double the state's current energy demand. He said the new PSC rule gives regulators more control over how Georgia Power recoups money spent on data centers. However, questions remain if it does enough to protect other customers. Sherrier said it's going to be extremely expensive to bring the large data centers onto the power grid, with major investments in transmission and distribution lines and power plants, as well as increased energy fuel expenses. 'Did residents cause Georgia Power to file an emergency IRP a year ago that asked to add spend billions of dollars to build new power plants?' Sherrier said. 'They didn't. Is it because of small businesses that they require miles and miles of new, expensive transmission lines? No, I think that this bill sets an appropriate standard for making sure that they don't have to pay for those costs.' Aaron Mitchell, vice president of pricing and planning for Georgia Power, said that the proposal is unnecessary since the PSC rule requires data centers to bear the full cost of their energy consumption. Several dozen companies have expressed interest in building data centers inside the Peach State. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers consume 10 to 50 times as much electricity as the average commercial building. A forthcoming report commissioned by the Data Center Coalition, a national membership association for industry, found that direct employment in the data center industry increased 7% from 2022-2023, going from 28,120 jobs to in 2022 to to 30,070 the following year, according to Khara Boender, senior manager of state policy for the coalition. 'We would like to stress that the data center industry is committed to paying for its full cost of service for electricity,' Boender said. 'We do not want residential ratepayers subsidizing data center energy use.' Boender said the Data Center Coalition opposes the bill. 'Since the PSC has taken action to ensure large load customers bear the cost of their energy use, we encourage the committee to resist advancing legislation that would duplicate those efforts being addressed in the regulatory environment where the rate setting has traditionally taken place,' she said. A report in December from real-estate firm CBRE found that Atlanta is among the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation for the construction of data centers. The amount of data center power capacity jumped by 74% during the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023. Major companies like Meta, Microsoft, Google and X have either opened data centers or announced plans to open facilities in Atlanta. The state is attracting interest from tech companies with its state tax breaks, with companies primarily building in regions with high-speed fiber optic cable infrastructure that is able to transfer large volumes of data. Georgia Power says data center growth will cause electricity demands to triple in next decade Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Cumming Republican, asked Mitchell why the utility company's growth projections from a couple of years ago were significantly lower than its current forecast. Dolezal also asked if there was any truth to a rumor the PSC is merely rubber stamping requests from Georgia Power that have led to rising bills for its customers. 'The thing that stands out to me is looking 10 years out, your estimate three years ago for 2035 will be is now 55% higher. That's a massive change for three years. Help me understand what's driving that change.' Mitchell cited the state's economic development boom that has attracted several auto manufacturing companies and auto suppliers to open new industrial sites and the surging artificial intelligence industry supported by data centers. Mitchell said that the PSC has consistently reduced the company's initial requests in rates cases and resource planning. Sen. Frank Ginn, Danielsville Republican, said his biggest concern about rapidly building up infrastructure for data centers is the potential downfall should the demand be replaced by new AI technology that consumes drastically less energy. Georgia Power also has the ability to adjust its plans for building out its electric system should the market dynamics shift in a different direction, Mitchell said. Mitchell said the new PSC rule locking in larger industrial customers into minimum 15-year contracts means that companies that fail to stay in operation for the entire length of a contract will 'owe the remainder of the term of costs for that contract, so that other customers are not stuck with or have to bear the brunt of those costs.' 'We'll be establishing minimum bills while electricity usage may fluctuate,' Mitchell said. 'We wanted to ensure that the revenue coming in from these large customers was sufficient to cover our cost' Mitchell said Georgia Power would be in a unique position as a utility company if it needed to get approval from the General Assembly to adjust its rates based on large data centers usage. 'We believe that the tools provided by the laws you've already enacted, and under the rules of the Public Service Commission, provide us all tools necessary to ensure that we can continue to keep Georgia growing but protect all customers at the same time,' he said. Several members of the Senate committee, including Republican Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, expressed their support of new data centers opening in Georgia since they can add a substantial infusion of dollars to the local property tax digest. Hufstetler said he's in favor of the economic development benefits that come from new data centers. His district is home to a Switch data Center in Cartersville and in Rome, Microsoft has agreed to upfront 100% of their property taxes for a new data center. 'I think we're all – Georgia Power, the Public Service Commission, the data centers, myself – I think we all are kind of looking at the same goals,' Hufstetler said. 'It's just making sure that we've got everything tightened up to where we do protect the consumers of Georgia.' Environment Georgia state director Jennette Gayer raised concerns about the environmental impact of new power plants and transmission lines required to support data centers rather than Georgia Power relying more on building up renewable energy sources like solar power. Gayer, a senior advisor for consumer watchdog Georgia Public Interest Research Group, said that the bill better ensures that data centers companies pay their fair share of energy costs. 'We absolutely do not think that the cost of supplying energy to data centers should be imposed on the environment or on consumers,' she said. Julian Bene, a former board member of Atlanta's economic development agency Invest Atlanta, said the rapidly changing AI landscape includes a Chinese entrepreneurial group that developed a substitute for the technology proliferating across the U.S. It can operate at a fraction of the power that's in use widespread domestically, he said. Bene said that if Georgia Power has an actual 'take or pay' agreement then it'll allow the company to recoup their investment without coming at the expense of residential and small business customers. 'If you're saying it's all fixed, what's your objection to Sen. Hufstetler's bill?' Bene said. 'Let's do belt and braces and have both. You're saying it's all fixed, what's your objection?' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
