Public Service Commission Vote on May 28 Shifts Data Center Costs to Residential Customers and Risks Climate Stability

SAVANNAH, GA — Advocates warn that a pivotal Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) vote this Thursday, May 28, will burden residential and small business customers with costs from storm recovery while accelerating Georgia Power’s carbon-intensive expansion to serve data centers.

The Commission is expected to approve a stipulated agreement that shifts gas pipeline capacity costs, including the Transco contract for Plant Wansley, onto residential and small business ratepayers (PSC fling document #225466, Feb. 17, 2026, p. 19).

Large industrial and data center customers are effectively shielded from these costs because they operate on Real-Time Pricing (RTP) tariffs and do not pay standard base rates. The stipulated agreement is explicitly designed for residential and small business customers to bear the full $609 million impact, which translates into an annual rate hike of $109 million for the next five and half years.

If approved as expected, the agreement will raise residential and small business customer rates 4.6% beginning on June 1, 2026 (PSC fling document #226433, April 30, 2026 2-tracked). This rate increase contradicts claims made by Georgia Power executives and PSC commissioners since May 2025 that a rate freeze remains in effect through 2028.

Georgia Power portrays the package as delivering $4 in monthly bill savings but Georgia Power is using unrelated funds from a federal nuclear production tax credit to reduce bills while hiding a rate increase. 

The $4 month reduction masks a more dire reality: average residential summer bills rose by $60 per month between 2022 and 2025 as a result of six separate rate increases. Those increases delivered a record $2.851 billion profit to Georgia Power in 2025.

“While Georgia Power claims a three-year rate freeze in effect, here they are increasing rates just one year later using accounting gamesmanship,” said Patty Durand, founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy. “This vote shifts the costs of data center infrastructure onto struggling families despite claims that no data center cost shifting is taking place. Even worse, in 2025 Georgia Power disconnected almost 300,000 households for failure to pay. That’s one in every nine households, 10 times higher the utility industry norm,” Ms. Durand continued. 

The agreement preserves a framework requiring customers to pay for Hurricane Helene recovery and 100% of all storm-related grid damage. Georgia Power assumes no financial risk of weather volatility while enjoying state guaranteed profit margins that are far above industry norms.

Kevin Potts of Savannah Indivisible stated: “Georgia residents are on the front lines of climate change. This is especially true in coastal Georgia. Beach erosion, storm damage, and excessive heat grow worse. We’re a top ten state for sunshine but we rank 47th in solar. This agreement shows Georgia Power is prioritizing long-term fossil fuel expansion for profits despite our climate reality”.

Kevin continued, “The Republican-majority PSC failed to address projections that Georgia Power’s expanded natural gas buildout for data centers will add 20 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually. That’s more than every car in Georgia. Georgia Power is ignoring its devastating impacts on coastal Georgia that its grid expansion plans will worsen. Instead of bearing any risk for these decisions, they’ve gamed the system to profit on the buildout while forcing residential and small business customers to pay for everything”.