(GPB NEWS)- Professional staff for Georgia’s Public Service Commission say Georgia Power is vastly overestimating its need for new generation capacity due to the growth in data centers and that customer bills could rise because of that.
The assertion was made in two separate reports prepared as written testimony by two different groups of experts as part of the PSC’s approval process for Georgia Power’s request for an unprecedented amount of new capacity the company says is demanded by the growing data center sector.
Georgia Power has so far been allowed to keep as “trade secrets” the methods by which they arrive at those estimates. Environmental activist and former PSC candidate Patty Durand was charged with a felony for allegedly stealing a brochure containing trade secrets at a recent PSC hearing around the capacity request.
Both of the expert reports filed on Nov. 12 warn that if Georgia Power builds out capacity for data centers that ultimately never come, household customers would be hurt.
“If the market shifts or the Company’s forecasted large load does not materialize, the [Georgia Power] will still seek to recover those costs,” reads the joint testimony of PSC Electric Unit Director Robert L. Trokey, Dylan A. Drugan and Karan A. Pol. “Without executed contracts under the new large load framework, there is no guarantee those costs will not be passed on to existing customers.”
In their testimony, PSC Utility Finance Director Tom Newsome, Philip Hayet and Leah Wellborn put a number to what those costs would likely be: close to $3.5 billion in new revenue annually by 2030 in order to support nearly 10 gigawatts of new capacity — more than twice the capacity of nuclear-powered Plant Vogtle.
The group further estimates it would mean a hike of a about $20 a month for the average Georgia Power household customer.
Neither report suggests not granting Georgia Power any new capacity at all for data centers. Jointly, they suggest granting 30% to 40% of the requested growth, mainly through power purchased from pre-existing sources not owned by Georgia Power rather than allowing the company to build out its own new facilities.
The new facilities Georgia seeks to add are battery storage sites (some paired with solar power) and natural gas-burning turbines.
The utility said it is already postponing sunsetting coal-fired units at Plant Bowen in North Georgia and Plant Scherer in Middle Georgia to cope with data center demand.
The PSC will hold public hearings regarding the staff recommendations beginning Dec. 10. The decision on Georgia Power’s request for new generation capacity will come on Dec. 19. Two Democrats recently elected to serve on the PSC, replacing two Republicans on the previously all-Republican five-seat commission, will be sworn in Jan. 1.
