State officials approved a plan on July 1 to keep Georgia Power’s base rates stable through at least the end of 2028, ending three years of bill increases for Georgians.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp first announced the freeze in May, but proceedings with the statewide Public Service Commission took months. The commission will have separate proceedings for 2025 storm costs in the first half of 2026.
“The rate freeze resulting from this plan is a great result for customers,” Georgia Power President and CEO Kim Greene said. “Balancing the mutual benefits of extraordinary economic growth among all stakeholders and helping to ensure we remain equipped to continue supporting growth in this state.”
Georgia’s bills average about $145 to $165 monthly, a little bit above the national average according to the Energy Information Administration. They’ve also increased six times in the past three years. In 2022, the power company submitted a rate case to increase the rate until 2025.
The freeze comes after a controversial Georgia Power proposal that predicted 8,200 megawatts of electrical load growth in the next six years. Much of the growth is from the increase in energy-sucking data centers across the state.
During proceedings, the power company said battery energy storage facilities and a solar program would keep costs the same, but a coalition of watchdog groups, including Cool Planet Solutions, Georgia WAND, the Center for Sustainable Coast and the GCV Education Fund, said it was misleading.
“This is a standard Georgia Power playbook of overestimating growth to justify building new generating facilities to deliver rich profits for investors at the expense of hard-working Georgians,” the coalition said in a statement.
The watchdog groups compared the plan to a 2024 price increase, when Georgia Power raised residential rates by 23.7 percent for Vogtle’s expansion. The proposed plan for 2025 would cost $275 billion.
But the power bills will stay the same for all 2.8 million customers across the next three years, unless additional fees come through the future storm cost proceedings.
“A plan like this is only possible due to the strength of Georgia’s constructive regulatory environment, and we thank the Georgia Public Service Commission for their vote today,” Green said.
Two seats at the Georgia Public Service Commission are up for election this year. The five-person commission regulates electric, gas, telecommunications and intrastate transportation companies. They set annual utility rates, too.
On June 17, the primary election for the PSC seats was held, but no candidate for the District 3 Democratic nomination won more than 50 percent of the vote. Only about 2.8 percent of Georgia voters turned out for the election.
The results triggered a runoff election on July 15. Keisha Sean Waites and Peter Hubbard will face off in the runoff for the Democratic nomination. Both the District 2 and District 3 seats will be up for the Nov. 4 general election.
Republican incumbent Tim Echols will face off with Democrat Alicia Johnson for District 2 in the general election. Incumbent Republican Fitz Johnson will go up against the Democratic nominee.
Why not mention the 12 percent guaranteed return on capital which drives the rates.
This “rate freeze” locks in super-high electricity bills, with far higher rates of return than other utilities earn. It enables Georgia Power to keep their deals with data centers secret. It means they can go on polluting the atmosphere instead of using solar.
We need Peter Hubbard on the PSC to begin to rein in the monopoly rule of Georgia Power.
This rate freeze is a catastrophe for Ga Power customers. It locks in astronomical profits that should be lowered to provide immediate rate relief, it hides the billions of dollars in spending from public scrutiny and regulatory oversight, and it gives candidates for the public service commission the gift of not having to discuss yet another rate increase during their campaign so they can try to trick voters into thinking they give two flips about them, when they don’t. For more information about the rate freeze visit https://georgiansforaffordableenergy.org/truth-about-rate-freeze/.
With this decision by the corrupted Commissioners, Georgia Power will lock in a Return on Equity that is 11.9% — over 2.2% higher than the national rate for electric utilities. That absurdly high rate will apply to all the new power plants and transmission lines they are building to serve data centers. But the costs plus that extra 11.9% will be borne in large part by residential customers. In addition, the 2 Commissioners up for re-election can avoid a public rate case hearing which would have been highly embarrassing for them due to the ridiculously high RoE.