After years of increases, Georgia power rates are frozen — for now
This coverage is made possible thanks to a partnership between Grist and WabeAtlanta NPR station.
After six invoice increases in the past three years, Georgia power rates will now remain the same for the moment.
Under an agreement approved Tuesday by the Georgia Public Service Commission, Georgia Power’s prices will remain the same for the next three years, although the agreement does not include certain costs, which could still lead to the increase in invoices next year.
“The gel of the rates resulting from this plan is an excellent result for customers,” said Kim Greene, CEO of Georgia Power, in a press release: “Balancing the mutual advantages of extraordinary economic growth among all stakeholders and helping to ensure that we remain equipped to continue to support growth in this state.”
Energy bills vary considerably depending on the state and were higher in 2024 than in 2023, according to the Federal Energy Information Administration. Georgia bills were just above the national average in 2024, ranging from $ 145 to $ 165 per month, but these figures are averaged by all customers, not on the individual prices of public invoices or services. Atlanta has some of the country’s highest energy charges, according to Georgia Tech, especially among low -income and black households – which means that these residents pay a higher percentage of their income for electricity.
Under the agreement concluded by Georgia Power and the commission staff and more later by the Georgia Association of Manufacturers and Utility Management Services, the basic prices that help determine the electricity bills will remain the same for three years – with the exception of the cost of recovery from Hurricane Helene, the most damaging storm of the history of Georgia Power.
Georgia Power is expected to examine the cost of fuels such as coal and natural gas next year, which could also increase invoices – although business officials have declared that lower fuel prices could result in a drop in bills, or at least cancel the Hélène’s additional costs.
Georgia was about to withdraw coal power plants. Then came the data centers.
“Customers have seen unprecedented inflation in the energy sector in the United States,” the president of the Commission Jason Shaw said in a statement. “My colleagues commissioners and I exhorted the staff and the power of Georgia to reach an agreement where the basic rates would not increase. This is nothing other than good news for the taxpayers of Georgia Power. ”
Shaw is right on the national energy prices: recent increases in Georgia Power rate are part of a national trend that has seen increases in demand for public services totaling $ 18.13 billion in 2023, although the actual increased increases are lower, according to S&P Global.
But some criticisms were less certain than the gel of the rates is good for customers. The agreement bypassing the fixing process for several months to strong months, during which the interested parties – including the energy and consumers’ defenders, the municipalities, the major Power users such as the Atlanta public transport authority and the Walmart and even the federal government – meet thanks to the finances and proposals of Georgia Power. Without these audiences, some have argued, it is impossible to know if the gel of the rate is the best possible offer for customers.
“Everyday Georgians cannot be clinging to the expenses of the Georgia Power data center,” said Bob Sherrier, a Southern Environmental Law Center lawyer in a statement. “The next three years are very consecutive to the electricity network and deserve much more control than what happened here.”
Critics of the agreement also feared that the “gel of the rates” is an improper term due to the adjustment of the storm costs which will occur next year. Others have shown concern by postponing costs to maintain rates in the same way, the plan will result in even higher rates in 2028.
Georgia Power officials denied the two concerns during the hearings last week. They argued that the drop in fuel costs could balance the costs of the storm, leaving the rates the same or even lower, and that the costs of the costs of costs will extend beyond the next three years.
Commissioner Bubba McDonald opposed the current power rates – rates are being extended – when they were approved in 2022 because he thought that Georgia Power’s profits were too high. The Commission authorized a return to equity for investors of Georgia Power between 9.5%and 11.9%, which is higher than the national average this year of 9.54%. McDonald reiterated this objection on Tuesday and proposed a drop in the drop in the profit ceiling for the public service, but no other commissioner supported the proposal and he died without a vote.
In the end, McDonald joined his colleagues commissioners to vote for the freezing of the rates, and he went unanimously.
