Georgia Power settles request for more energy, expanding fossil fuels

ATLANTA– Today the Georgia Public Service Commission’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff filed settlement terms with Georgia Power on the company’s off-cycle Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The terms of this settlement must be approved by Georgia’s Public Service Commission. This settlement was made public minutes before the last round of IRP public hearings. The settlement terms expand the company’s use of fossil fuels, including three new methane gas and oil burning units at Plant Yates. These units will have a 46-year life span, potentially furthering our reliance on fossil fuels for decades. The agreement also includes buying energy from Georgia Power’s sister company Mississippi Power, a move that will delay retirement of Plant Daniel, a coal burning power plant.

The settlement includes ineffective terms that would not adequately protect residential and small business customers from bill hikes. The settlement also greenlights bypassing the traditional competitive bid process for acquiring new generating resources, removing an important step to guarantee new energy sources come from the most qualified, cost effective and reliable energy supply. This settlement comes during a series of bill increases for residential customers. Over a two year stretch the average Georgia Power residential bill will jump $44 a month, including $16 to pay for spikes in methane gas and coal costs.

Georgia Power asked the PSC to bypass the normal approval process and allow a significant increase in fossil fuels to meet “unprecedented” energy demand because of rapid growth of power use in our state. Data centers and manufacturers are blamed for most of this load growth. But Georgia Power’s request is for far more energy than the company’s own models project they will use. Analysis by the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, shows that the most likely energy demand can be met with renewable options, like solar and battery storage.

In response, Jennifer Whitfield, Senior Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, released the following statement:

“We are deeply disappointed with the terms agreed to here. This is a fossil fuel bonanza, that skips the regulatory processes in place to protect billpayers.  Not only is expanding dirty, and unpredictably priced fossil fuels on the table, this agreement would allow Georgia Power to bypass important steps to protect its customers from rising energy bills. We have very serious questions about the precedent this creates. Georgians pay some of the highest energy bills in the nation. It is unconscionable that Georgia Power is allowed to build energy to attract large load customers at the peril of residential and small business customers who don’t get a choice. The PSC and its staff should have an obligation to protect the citizens of Georgia from monopoly utilities, particularly when Georgia Power has an obligation to protect their shareholders, not its residential and small business customers.”