Georgia is among the top importers of electricity across state lines according to a new report, with demand expected to rise from an influx of new manufacturing facilities and data centers.

The report, published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ranked Georgia fifth among states receiving electricity across state lines. Virginia, which has seen an influx of data centers, imported the most out-of-state power, and Pennsylvania was the top exporter.

About 10% of U.S. electricity is traded across state lines in the lower 48 states, with 25 states producing more than they consume, according to the EIA. In the Southeast, Alabama and South Carolina are net exporters, while Georgia has acquired, on average, about one-sixth of the electricity it consumed each year from other states over the past decade, according to the agency.

In 2023, power plants in Georgia produced about 129 million megawatt-hours of electricity and imported an additional 25 million megawatt-hours to meet roughly 142 million megawatt-hours of demand, according to data provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the EIA. It shows overall demand in Georgia rising gradually since 1990.

That could soon change. Utilities and analysts across the country say they expect demand for electricity to surge nationally, with many citing the proliferation of power-hungry data centers to support artificial intelligence.

By midyear, data center construction had increased 76% in the Atlanta market compared to the same time last year, the most among North America’s eight data center primary markets, according to real estate services firm CBRE. There is more leasable data center space under construction as measured by power demand than there is total leasable data center space in metro Atlanta currently in use — the only major market in the country with such high demand, CBRE has said.

Construction is underway for the expansion of QTS’ Atlanta mega data center campus on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. Atlanta 1 features its own on-site Georgia Power substations and direct fiber access to a wide variety of carrier alternatives. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

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Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Some critics have questioned those projections, as utilities including Georgia Power have used the threat of shortages to seek rushed approval for more fossil fuel-powered generation.

Predictions of dramatic demand increases have also brought scrutiny to the country’s transmission infrastructure — the huge, high-voltage power lines that carry electricity across territory, for example, from sunny South Georgia, which is ripe for solar development, to metro Atlanta, where energy demand is concentrated. The Georgia attorney general and the Public Service Commission, which regulates Georgia Power, have filed legal challenges to a new federal rule intended to streamline the transmission planning process, alleging it infringes on states’ authority.

Tom Krause, a spokesperson for the PSC, said in an email there is much debate on this issue of transmission infrastructure.

“PSC staff would likely say additional, high-capacity interstate transmission is beneficial,” he said. “Georgia Power officials might not agree.”

Krause also said Georgia Power should not necessarily be building infrastructure to handle all of its customers’ needs. He said Georgia Power can receive real-time energy from its sister companies in Alabama and Mississippi when it is economically reasonable to do so, at a cost benefit for Georgia ratepayers. Importing energy also allows the company to add renewable power sources it otherwise would not have, Krause said, pointing to a contract Georgia Power has to purchase 250 megawatts of wind-generated power from Oklahoma.

“In a state that is growing as fast as Georgia, importing some energy makes sense fiscally,” he said in an email. “Construction of infrastructure is expensive, and customers’ bills do reflect those costs.”

As of January, Georgia Power’s ratepayers will have faced six different hikes since the start of 2023, in part to pay for the expansion of the Plant Vogtle nuclear power facility.

James Marlow, president of Southface, an Atlanta-based sustainability nonprofit that focuses on energy, said rising demand should spur more investment in transmission upgrades as well as distributed generation in the form of rooftop solar with battery storage, particularly on large commercial buildings. Marlow said his organization estimates there are about 15,000 big warehouses and distribution centers in Georgia that would be ideal alternatives to using agricultural or forest land for solar panels.

Solar panels are installed atop a parking garage and on building rooftops at the Palisades office complex in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: Ben Gray

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Credit: Ben Gray

“Next time you fly out of Hartsfield Jackson, look out the window — you’ll see about 350 (warehouses) out the window, and if you walk over to the other side of the plane, you’d see another 350,” he said. “There’s no solar panels on any of those roofs, and that’s due to utility regulatory policies and also some tax credit issues.”

In addition to cutting down on energy losses in transmission, Marlow said peppering small and medium generators in the form of rooftop solar throughout the system would make communities more resilient to disruptions from severe weather or other challenges. He expressed hope that Georgia Power and regulators would create more favorable policies for warehouse solar in the near future.

Jacob Hawkins, a spokesperson for Georgia Power, said the company and its parent, Southern Co., are meeting the need for electricity in a growing state through its own generation, as well as through purchases and transactions from surrounding states and the market.

“ … (T)his is not new and has been how the system has worked for decades,” he said in an email. “The system is functioning well, and we continue to work with the Georgia Public Service Commission … to ensure we have the generation, transmission and distribution resources we need to serve our customers and communities.”

Southern Co. owns regulated electric utilities in three states — Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi — and natural gas distribution utilities in four. It is also the balancing authority for much of Georgia as well as parts of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, meaning it oversees supply and demand. Georgia Power recently got approval from regulators at the Public Service Commission to continue buying power from its sister company, Mississippi Power, delaying the retirement of a coal-fired power plant in that state.

Tyson Brown, electricity team lead at EIA, wrote in an email that the agency’s report does not assign a state’s electricity imports to any specific source state, nor can they breakdown which electricity fuel sources (natural gas, solar, nuclear, etc.) provided imported electricity.

Outside of Georgia Power’s territory, most rural parts of the state are served by electric cooperatives or municipal utilities.

Heather Teilhet, a spokesperson for the Oglethorpe Power Corp., which supplies most of the power to the state’s electric cooperatives, said the remaining energy comes from a mix of power supply contracts with third party power marketers, federal hydropower and contracts for renewable resources.

— Staff writer Zachary Hansen contributed to this report.


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