Georgia regulators to investigate data center energy costs This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WABE and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Georgia regulators are launching an investigation into how large power users like data centers pay for fuel. It’s in an effort to make sure other Georgia Power customers aren’t paying extra costs driven by the growth of the energy-hungry industry.
Advocacy groups that have been pushing for more protections for residents and small businesses as the data center business booms applauded the move.
“Georgians deserve to understand exactly who is paying for the massive growth in electricity demand from data centers, and who isn’t,” Ja’Mae Rooks of Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund said in a statement.
Data centers, particularly the large ones known as hyperscalers used for generative AI, use enormous amounts of electricity — so much that Georgia Power is building new infrastructure to meet the demand. Late last year, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved about 10 gigawatts of new energy capacity to serve higher demand the utility is predicting, mostly from data centers. That’s nearly five times the capacity of the new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle.
Earlier in 2025, the commission approved new contract terms to help ensure data centers and other large customers pay for infrastructure built to serve them, and Georgia Power has said it will cover costs if the predicted data center demand doesn’t materialize.
But some advocates worry those measures don’t go far enough or capture all the costs involved.
One such cost that critics argue is slipping through the cracks: getting fuel to newly-expanded power plants.
The issue arose during hearings earlier this year over the rate that Georgia Power charges residential and small business customers to pay for the fuel that runs power plants. Large customers like data centers pay for fuel differently, under a system called Real-Time Pricing, or RTP. Consumer advocates argue the current system leaves other Georgians paying for infrastructure that’s only being built because of data center demand.
Those fuel rate proceedings ended with an agreement that, in addition to lowering the fuel rate, called for an investigation into the RTP methodology. The commission has now started that probe, with the first round of hearings scheduled for September. The investigation does not cover other Georgia utilities.
This story is available through a news partnership with WABE, Atlanta’s National Public Radio affiliate.
