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The Georgia Public Service Commission will make two major decisions next month, on a proposal to temporarily freeze Georgia Power’s rates and on the utility’s long-term plan to make and deliver energy. Hearings on both issues this week got heated at times.
The rate freeze proposal comes after the commission approved six bill increases implemented over the last three years. Georgia Power was due to submit another rate plan by July 1. Company officials testified on Thursday that they were facing a revenue shortfall, meaning they’d likely have requested another rate hike.
Instead, the utility reached a deal with commission staff to leave base rates at their current level temporarily.
“We think this is a good, safe bet for ratepayers to keep rates where they are for the next three years,” said Tom Bond, the director of utilities at the commission.
Critics have raised concerns about the transparency of the process and its future impacts.
The energy plan, known as the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), seeks to meet an enormous increase in demand that the utility is predicting in the coming years, which it attributes mostly to new data centers. It calls for a mix of resources, including expanding solar, upgrading transmission lines and older power plants, and keeping coal plants open past their previously announced closing dates.
Clean energy and consumer advocates have criticized its use of climate-warming fossil fuels. Analysts have also criticized the demand forecast itself, arguing that it overestimates both the amount of energy new, large power users like data centers will need and how soon they’ll need it.
Commissioners are preparing to vote on both issues during the first Public Service Commission election in years, after two rounds of elections were canceled while a lawsuit worked its way through the courts. Another lawsuit could affect the current vote, though it’s not yet clear how.
During the public comment periods that begin each day of hearings, speakers have criticized the commission this week for not acting quickly and decisively enough to cut fossil fuel use in the face of climate change, and for raising power rates. Speakers make similar points during most commission hearings.
Some commissioners didn’t take kindly to the criticism.
Commissioner Tricia Pridemore on Tuesday claimed commenters get paid to come in and, as she put it, agitate.
“We’re doing all the things that you’re asking us to do, but yet you stand up there and chide us and accuse us and lie about us,” she said. “While the rest of us are being adults and running things, you might want to try it yourself.”
After healthcare workers raised concerns about rising energy bills and the health impacts of climate change and air pollution, Commissioner Tim Echols deflected, questioning a nurse about healthcare costs and a doctor about whether parents’ smoking contributes to kids’ asthma.
Doctor Preeti Jaggi, another commenter, pushed back against Echols’ input.
“I think the time here is for you to listen to the public, and we as clinicians are giving you our perspective,” she said. “And we appreciate you listening to us.”
Pridemore then chided Jaggi for that criticism.
Freezing rates
Several commissioners applauded the rate freeze proposal in advance of Thursday’s hearing on it — a move that advocacy groups objected to. A complaint from Georgians for Affordable Energy, the Center for a Sustainable Coast, Georgia Conservation Voters and Georgia WAND called on Echols, Commission Chair Jason Shaw and Commissioner Bubba McDonald to recuse themselves from voting on the issue. All three declined to do so.
The agreement would keep base power rates at their current level for three years, but Georgia Power could still pass on the costs of fuel and cleaning up Hurricane Helene to customers next year. Many critics of the deal worry that caveat means power bills would go up anyway.
The plan also relies in part on Georgia Power deferring some of its costs over the next few years. Some advocates worry that could add up to an even bigger rate hike in 2028.
Company officials denied both concerns.
“A lot of the adjustments we’ve made as a part of this stipulation will benefit customers well past the next three years, and into ‘28, ‘29, and 2030,” said Georgia Power chief financial officer Aaron Abramovitz.
Of the expected 2026 adjustment for storm and fuel costs, “there’s an opportunity for rates to stay flat or decrease next year,” he said, depending on the price of natural gas in the coming months.
The commission is set to vote on the rate freeze proposal on July 1.
Election complications
Echols and Commissioner Fitz Johnson are both running to keep their seats this year, in elections scheduled for Nov. 4. Echols defeated a primary challenger and will face Democrat Alicia Johnson in the general election. The democratic primary to choose Fitz Johnson’s opponent is headed to a runoff on July 15.
Both of these elections were originally set for 2022 but called off due to a voting rights lawsuit. Pridemore was also due to face reelection last year, but that election was canceled as well.
The state legislature passed a law in 2024 laying out a new schedule for elections. It extends the terms of the current commissioners past their original six years in order to keep the elections staggered — a provision that is the subject of a fresh legal challenge.
Last year, a group of advocates sued, arguing the law violates the state constitution by granting commissioners terms longer than six years. A judge dismissed the suit, but the plaintiffs have appealed. A judge granted a motion to expedite the case this month.
It’s unclear what effect, if any, that lawsuit could have on the current election.
