U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm attended the May 31 ribbon-cutting for Plant Vogtle, the first set of nuclear reactors built in the United States in nearly 30 years. I don’t understand how a state that is supposed to regulate its monopoly utilities in the public interest allowed Georgia Power to build a $36 billion nuclear facility that is 10 times more expensive than equivalent generation and that went nearly $20 billion over budget.
Our state Public Service Commission (PSC) is charged with ensuring that Georgia Power is financially sound and that customers pay just and reasonable rates. These mandates are written into state law. But that’s not what is happening. Instead, commissioners block or artificially hinder competition from more affordable solutions such as solar, battery storage and demand management while allowing the utility to build expensive nuclear and gas plants.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Plant Vogtle was touted at the ceremony as the largest clean-energy generating facility in the country. How is Georgia celebrating clean energy when the very same month that Plant Vogtle was completed, the PSC approved Georgia Power’s request to build three new gas plants to meet projected data center energy needs and authorized continuing coal plants that were scheduled for retirement?
These approvals were granted despite intense pushback from those opposed to expanding fossil fuels and from prospective Georgia Power customers with clean energy goals. For example, Microsoft protested during PSC hearings that expanding gas to supply its data center energy needs does not meet its carbon-free-emissions pledge, that projected new demand for data center customers was far too aggressive, and that more affordable solutions such as solar and storage were available even if data center demand materialized. The U.S. Department of Defense protested that its actual request for clean energy was not represented in Georgia Power’s plan but hypothetical customers without clean energy goals were. Many people involved in PSC hearings also protested that information about data center growth was redacted and therefore could not be evaluated or confirmed.
So what’s really going on here? Several things: a broken compensation system for our monopoly utility, a PSC that does not meet its state mandates to set just and reasonable rates and data center tax breaks that harm Georgia Power electricity customers.
Georgia guarantees compensation to Georgia Power for building new generation. The reverse is not true: Georgia Power is not compensated when it reduces costs, incorporates energy efficiency or avoids expensive investments. Georgia Power is acting according to the incentive the state sets. Georgia is continuing a 20th-century model of guaranteeing profits for building things instead of modernizing how Georgia Power is compensated. Thus, new generation is advanced at every opportunity.
Georgia’s data center tax breaks are harming Georgia’s electricity customers because it incentivizes companies looking for a good deal to come here. Prospective data center customers gave Georgia Power a reason to demand authorization to build massive amounts of new generation, more than twice the amount of what Vogtle just added to the grid. These costs are unfairly passed to all Georgia Power customers instead of just the commercial customers that triggered the increased demand. The Georgia legislature passed legislation to end data center tax breaks and create an electricity study committee, but the legislation was vetoed by Gov. Brian P. Kemp.
These are serious issues: Electricity is an essential service, and our utility bills are already too high. Including tariffs, surcharges and service fees, Georgians pay the fifth highest electricity bills in the nation. Our summers are brutally hot, and people can die when they lose access to electricity. Renters can be evicted and parents can lose custody of their children if they don’t have electricity. Protecting Georgians by keeping electricity bills among the lowest in the nation to match our low-cost living should be the PSC’s priority. Yet time and time again, commissioners do not choose the lowest-cost option, which is why Georgians pay such high bills.
Georgia Power has many lobbyists advancing its interests at both the state legislature and the Georgia Public Service Commission. If lobbying is going to be allowed for Georgia Power, lobbying for consumers must also be allowed. Yet in 2009 the state legislature defunded the Consumer Utility Counsel (CUC), making Georgia one of only five states without an office that works to advance consumer and small business interests during PSC rate proceedings.
The question we must ask ourselves is whether the regulated for-profit monopoly utility model has stopped working for Georgians. Our state commissioners are not operating as a check on monopoly power as intended. We have an outdated system that prioritizes profits over affordability and clean energy. It is time to move away from a guaranteed-profit model and adopt one that incentivizes clean energy, low costs and a competitive business market. At a minimum, the state must reestablish the Consumer Utility Counsel so consumers have representation in PSC proceedings.
Next year, when Plant Vogtle’s costs are incorporated into electricity bills, it is very likely that Georgians will be paying the highest electricity bills in the United States. That’s not right.
Georgians deserve affordable, clean electricity. Let’s work together to ensure that Georgia has a 21st-century energy plan that is affordable, clean and protects the most vulnerable among us.
Patty Durand is founder of Cool Planet Solutions and former candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission.
