GOP-Led Public Service Comm In Georgia Pushing For 10 GW New Generation - 80% For AI, W. Ratepayers Footing The Bill

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Georgia is facing the largest demand for electricity in its history, driven by nation-leading datacenter construction. The Georgia Power company has made an unprecedented bid to the agency that oversees the utility for about 10 additional gigawatts of energy in the coming years – enough to power 8.3m homes, at an estimated cost of nearly $16bn, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.

But those huge numbers are not primarily for homes or local businesses in Georgia. Instead about 80% of the company’s ask is driven by datacenters, primarily for artificial intelligence, according to Tom Krause, spokesperson for the state’s public service commission, or PSC. It is the largest increase ever considered by the commission in a multiyear plan and comes as the Atlanta metro area led the nation in datacenter construction last year – a phenomenon playing out across the US and increasingly sparking protests and pushback. The PSC’s five members will be charged with deciding how much energy the state needs, when it’s needed and the best way to meet that need, Krause said.

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State senator ​​Chuck Hufstetler introduced legislation earlier this year to force datacenters to shoulder more of the cost and to prohibit the PSC from raising utility bills due to increased electricity needs. The PSC has passed a rule to this effect, but in the absence of a law governing the issue, “it’s hard to know what their definitions of ‘costs’ is”, Hufstetler said. “They have secret contracts that the public doesn’t see.” As with others concerned about the issue, the legislator said he doesn’t see datacenters “as something that’s not needed. We just need to make sure they pay the costs of electricity and water,” he said.

Daniel Blackman, a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration, plans to provide public comment at the hearings. “The thing about datacenters is, it’s no longer ‘Are they coming?’” he said. “They’re already here. They’re no longer confined to rural areas.” What is needed, he said, is “bad actor legislation” – to provide some guardrails on companies behind datacenters.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/19/georgia-electricity-datacenters