After $679 Million in Additional Savings, Georgia's Democrat Commissioners Aren't Declaring Victory

New Georgia Power agreement on the Effingham County OpenAI project nearly doubles projected 2029 customer savings. Hubbard says he won't celebrate paper promises.

(Atlanta, Georgia) Yesterday, after intense reviews by Democrats on the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) and independent negotiations by Commission staff, Georgia Power and staff submitted a letter to the Commission announcing approval of a contract for electric service at the OpenAI data center project in Effingham County. The letter outlines additional terms and conditions agreed to by Georgia Power for all large load projects going forward and including the Effingham facility. Counting $285 million in immediate relief from this year’s Fuel Cost Docket (#56765) and the increased $396 million from the Effingham stipulation, Georgians have secured $679 million since uniting to pressure the Commission in 2025 - mostly in promised, future relief from 2029-2031. Importantly, no savings have been promised after 2031.  

“By sending Democrats to the Commission, Georgians did the hardest thing anyone can do - they tried something new,” said Commissioner Peter Hubbard. “We knew we would have to deliver results, and we are not and will not be satisfied with paper promises from the utility. $679 million in savings is good, but we won’t be happy until that’s a reality and not just a press release. To do that, we need voters to elect Shelia Edwards in November.”

The agreement reached by staff and Georgia Power includes a promise not to seek recovery of lost or projected revenues from non-large load residential or commercial customers in the event that a company like OpenAI or Meta terminates a contract early or can’t fulfill their contractual obligations. It also includes a commitment to greater reporting on the health of and individual contracts within the utility’s large load portfolio, and a near doubling of expected savings for customers in 2029 - from $8.50/month in “downward pressure” on rates to $15. The company’s release goes further, declaring that it will in fact save residential customers $15/month outright.

The Commission will decide whether the company can seek to recover any losses from other data centers or if they’ll simply have to lay down in the bed they made. 

For Edwards, the result reflects something deeper: Georgia voters are fed up.

“Georgians are tired of opening their power bills and wondering how much more they will be asked to pay. They are tired of watching utilities get what they want while families are told to absorb another increase. And they are tired of a Commission that too often seems more responsive to the companies it regulates than the people it was created to protect,” she said.

Edwards ran in 2022, securing the Democratic nomination, only for the elections to be canceled following a scandal ridden Redistricting cycle that included former Commissioners drawing their  opponents out of their seats and a lawsuit over the discriminatory impacts of at-large voting: a relic of the Jim Crow era. 

The $679 million figure does not include further potential savings from the Real Time Pricing Hearings currently underway - themselves the result of Commissioner inquiry and astute intervention by watchdogs like the Southern Environmental Law Center. Testimony filed by the company - to be debated on September 3rd - indicates that Georgia Power expects to shift how certain costs and revenues are credited and allocated in such a way as to increase savings for customers even further. Notably, the exact figures for these costs are shrouded in trade secret designations, but they only rise as more data centers are added to the grid. PSC Staff estimated in spring 2026 that new large load customers would raise everyone’s fuel costs by 5-11% by 2028 without further action - rising further as the years go on. 

No matter the outcome, and despite jeers from former Commissioners that such savings were an impossibility. Hubbard refuses to rest on his laurels. 

“25% of the average bill is fuel costs, but if we use solar, we don’t have to pay for all of those anymore,” he said from the road - returning from Athens by car with Edwards after a successful campaign event.

Edwards agreed. “The technology exists. The solutions exist. What’s been missing is the political will to stand up to powerful interests and put ratepayers first. Turns out we didn’t need more scientists and engineers—we needed regulators with a backbone.”

The election is November 3rd. The voter registration deadline is October 5th. Early voting begins October 13th. 

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TIMELINE

July 1, 2025 — PSC unanimously approves a three-year freeze on Georgia Power base rates after the company agrees not to file its expected 2025 rate case. Contemporaneous coverage in the Georgia Recorder and WTOC ties the deal to the pending PSC elections.

Nov. 4, 2025 — Hubbard defeats incumbent Fitz Johnson with nearly 63 percent. Alicia Johnson defeats Tim Echols. First Democrats elected to the Commission in roughly two decades.

Dec. 19, 2025 — The outgoing Commission approves approximately 9,900 MW of new generation, 5-0, thirteen days before the new commissioners are seated. The attached stipulation commits Georgia Power to deliver at least $556 million per year in large-load benefit, or $8.50 per month for a typical residential customer, in its 2028 rate case. Hubbard and Johnson had asked for a delay. Commissioners declined.

Jan. 1, 2026 — Hubbard and Johnson take office.

Feb. 18, 2026 — Hubbard moves to decertify 2,622 MW of resources lacking executed customer contracts. Johnson seconds. Reconsideration denied 3-2.

May 5–6, 2026 — Fuel cost recovery hearings, Docket 56765 (FCR-27). Under cross-examination, Georgia Power’s direct panel disputes that Real-Time Pricing customers contribute zero toward firm gas transportation costs (Hr’g Tr. 185:2-22). The company’s rebuttal panel later concedes that non-RTP customers pay 100 percent of those costs (Hr’g Tr. 970:23–972:2).

May 14, 2026 — Georgia Interfaith Power & Light and Southface Institute file a post-hearing brief documenting what large-load customers on the RTP rate contribute nothing toward, under a cost allocation methodology set in 2010: $719 million in solar PPA energy costs, $78.9 million in wind PPA energy costs, $117.9 million in new gas pipeline capacity, and the $43.9 million senior citizen fuel discount. Residential and small business customers pay all of it. Three additional categories — existing pipeline costs, renewable program expenses, and a hedging program the brief puts at over $100 million — remain sealed as trade secret, so the figure is a floor. Staff’s own experts testified that large data center load raises average fuel cost per MWh by 5 to 11 percent in 2028 and more thereafter. RTP load is projected to grow from about a quarter of Georgia Power’s energy sales to about half within three years.

May 28, 2026 — PSC approves the fuel and storm stipulation: approximately $285 million in savings per year, $4.04 per month, effective June 1, with storm cost recovery cut by nearly 60 percent. Georgia Power’s February filing had offered about $1.32 per month. Hubbard’s amendments — including a $15.2 million holdback against $152 million in uneconomic coal dispatch — fail 3-2, with Johnson in support. Intervenors including SELC’s clients support the stipulation only as an interim step, conditioned on a public RTP proceeding in the fall.

Summer 2026 — Commission opens Docket 57171, RTP Revenue Credit and Allocation Methodology, a product of the fuel settlement. Hubbard: “Experts identified nearly $1 billion in costs that data centers pay nothing towards, but families, churches, and small businesses do.” The docket must conclude by the end of 2026.

Aug. 13, 2026 — At the Commission’s administrative session, Hubbard states he is not comfortable letting staff review Georgia Power’s 3,200 MW OpenAI contract alone and that he has asked staff to object until sufficient financial guardrails are in place. Johnson concurs. Director of Utilities Tom Bond confirms staff would file an objection absent changes from the company. Georgia Power then extends its own review deadline from Aug. 14 to Aug. 26.

Aug. 26, 2026 — The contract is approved at staff level; no Commission vote is required under the April 2025 large-load rule. Georgia Power’s downward-pressure commitment rises from $8.50 to at least $15 per month for 2029, 2030 and 2031, with added residential and small-business protections. The company restates total large-load benefit at approximately $950 million per year, or $2.847 billion across the three years. Commissioner Johnson played a lead role in securing additional benefits from the deal. 

Sept. 1, 2026 — Docket 57171 hearings begin.

WHAT WE’RE NOT CLAIMING

The $285 million is in customers’ bills now. The $15 per month begins in 2029 and does not guarantee lower bills, since fuel and storm costs can outstrip it. Commissioner Hubbard has said publicly that the OpenAI contract did not receive the scrutiny it deserved. Every motion to go further this year has failed 3-2.