Georgia Power proposed a plan Tuesday that would lower monthly utility bills for customers as soon as this summer, ending a series of six rate increases that started in 2023.
In filings with the Georgia Public Service Commission, the company said residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month — considered “average” for measuring rate impacts — could see their bills drop by $1.32 a month. For those customers, that will amount to a roughly 1% decrease on their monthly bills.
The decrease is a combination of two things: Georgia Power’s expenses to repair the grid and restore electricity after pop-up storms and Hurricane Helene, and a refund of some of the money the utility collected from customers to pay for fuel at its power plants.
In other words, the company will be charging customers roughly $4.42 a month to pay for storm costs but will offset that amount by returning $5.74 a month in fuel costs.
“While electricity rates are climbing in other parts of the country and demand growth is placing increasing pressure on power systems nationwide, we’re working with the Georgia PSC to manage growth wisely, optimizing all areas of our business to allow us to provide savings to our customers,” Tyler Cook, Georgia Power’s chief financial officer, said in a written statement.
The company’s plan still needs to be approved by the PSC, after hearings that are set to unfold over the next few months. The PSC will take a final vote on the plan May 28, meaning customers could feel the impacts on their June bills.
The potential bill relief comes after Georgia Power struck a deal with regulators last year to freeze base rates through 2028.
The company’s proposal comes as the company and regulators face increasing pressure from Georgia Power customers, who have been frustrated by their high energy costs.
A series of rate increases approved by members of the PSC tacked on an average $43 a month to customer bills since 2023, and more may be on the way later in the decade.
Part of that increase was a $16-a-month hike for fuel costs starting June 2023, mostly from rising gas prices when Russia invaded Ukraine the year before. Coal and gas prices began to stabilize and eventually fall since then, which contributed to Georgia Power collecting more money for fuel than it needed to.
The company’s storm costs included $800 million for Hurricane Helene, the most destructive storm in utility history. Helene made its way through Georgia as a Category 2 hurricane, damaging or destroying more than 12,200 power poles, 1,500 miles of utility lines and 5,000 transformers, the company said.
“I think that the company and the commission can acknowledge that people are already feeling the pinch,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, a consumer watchdog. “Announcing an already significant rate increase was going to be really bad PR for the company and for the commission.”
Soaring utility bills led Georgians to the polls last November and resulted in Democrats flipping two seats on the PSC, a five-member panel that sets the rates and profits for Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light.
The new Democratic commissioners, Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson, rode a wave of discontent from Georgia Power customers over the Republican-dominated commission’s decisions to raise rates in recent years.
Earlier Tuesday, veteran Republican utility regulator Tricia Pridemore announced she won’t seek another term this fall.
The company’s filings come as it undertakes an unprecedented buildout of new electricity generation capacity, including new gas-fired power plants.
Regulators last December approved an unprecedented expansion of Georgia Power’s grid, allowing the electric company to add 10,000 megawatts — roughly 10 nuclear reactors — of mostly gas-burning power plants as well as solar and batteries in five years.
The historic buildout, mostly to serve energy-sucking data centers, could cost as much as $60 billion, according to some estimates.
Georgia Power has agreed to use revenue from data centers to tamp down monthly electricity rates by $8.50. This means customer rates will be $8.50 lower than they otherwise would be.
What’s more, Georgia Power wants nearly 60% of this generation buildout to come from new or existing natural gas plants, which contain a potent greenhouse gas called methane.
Natural gas also is subject to wide price swings. The federal Energy Information Administration said the winter storm that hit a large swath of the country in late January wiped out gas storage, driving up prices that will remain high in the coming months.
To help manage costs, Georgia Power wants to increase the amount of natural gas costs that it is allowed to hedge to 60% from a current 40%, according to its fuel filing. The company said doing so would protect customers’ exposure to price volatility.
Georgia Power also plans to run its coal plants significantly more in the coming years, according to its fuel filing.
“As we invest more in these fossil fuels, we are going to feel this pain in the fuel component in our bill in a big way,” said Jennifer Whitfield, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
A note of disclosure
This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at AJC.com/donate/climate.
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