Georgia Power foresees an increase in demand over the next six years and projects 8,200 megawatts of electrical load growth, plus an increase of more than 2200 MWs during peak demand.
In its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan, filed on Friday with the Georgia Public Service Commission, the company proposes continued investments in existing power plants.
The company wants to continue integration of cleaner natural gas into its fleet, a Georgia Power statement said, with additional upgrades at Plant McIntosh, which would add an additional 268 MW of capacity.
Georgia continues to be a draw for data centers, resulting in more electrical demand. Georgia Power’s strategy to meet the demand raises concerns among environmentalists, watchdog groups, and customers. A January article by Environment America said that “the rapid growth of data centers can deepen America’s reliance on fossil fuels and is putting consumers and communities at risk.”
Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene describes the Integrated Resource Plan as a comprehensive report that lays out a clean, safe, affordable energy future.
The company statement adds that technology is providing a diverse generation mix of cleaner and more efficient forms of energy generation.
A joint statement by four watchdog groups condemned the power company’s plan.
“These staggering increases total 16,800 MWs of new generation, or the equivalent of 8 new Vogtle reactors that would cost $275 billion,” the statement by Cool Planet Solutions, Georgia WAND, Center for Sustainable Coast and GCV Education Fund reads.
“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.”
And while Georgia Power says battery energy storage facilities and a new solar program can help meet demand and keep costs from escalating, the watchdog groups believe the company is misleading and lacks transparency.
The joint group statement pointed to last year’s rate increase:
“The filing comes as Georgia ratepayers have faced the largest rate increase in state history to pay for Plant Vogtle,” the statement says. “On May 1, 2024, Georgia Power raised residential base rates 23.7 percent to pay for Vogtle’s expansion, the highest rate increase in state history.
“As a result, nearly 200,000 Georgia Power residential customers were disconnected in 2024, a 30 percent increase in disconnections over the same time period in 2023. During that same period Southern Company profits increased more than 43 percent compared to last year, including $1.4 billion in Q3 alone, largely due to Georgia Power rate increases and an influx of data centers to its service territories.”
Data centers are projecting an insanely massive 50% increase in the current power capacity that serves most of Georgia. It’s 40 years growth in 2 years!
Tell your state rep and state senator to back bi-partisan SB 34. That would protect our power bills by making data centers pay the full cost of expansion and not letting them stick consumers with Georgia Power’s costs when data center power needs fizzle. That fizzle seems likely to happen
1) because smart Chinese DeepSeek technology can do AI for 1/10 the energy of current brute-force AI and there will be other similar breakthroughs
2) because the market for AI is unproven. No end user’s paying for it yet. It’s a bubble waiting to burst.
Email your rep and senator now to support SB 34 – or face a massive further hike in your electric bills!
If these data centers become real developments, the data center developers should be required to fund a portion of the additional energy generation infrastructure construction and commit to 50 years minimum of use.