Delayed PSC races heat up as candidates take aim at Georgia Power rate hikes, data center growth

Yahoo

04-04-2025

The QTS data center complex is under development in Fayetteville. QTS, the data-center developer that Blackstone bankrolls, complex is expected to consume as much electricity as about a million US households leaving utility Georgia Power rushing to build the infrastructure to meet demand. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Several candidates are vying to defeat a pair of incumbent Republican Georgia Public Service commissioners in an election that challengers say will become a referendum on rising Georgia Power bills.
Consumer watchdogs worry that the state's largest utility will continue to raise rates on residential customers as it girds for a wave of data center growth that will spike demand for electricity over the next decade.
Qualifying for the Public Service Commission races wrapped up Thursday with Commissioner Tim Echols, who represents a wide swath of east Georgia, and Commissioner Fitz Johnson, who represents metro Atlanta, declaring their reelection bids.
Echols will face challenger Lee Muns in the June 17 Republican Primary for the commission's District 2 seat.
The winner of the GOP primary will advance to a Nov. 4 general election against Savannah Democrat Alicia Johnson, who is unopposed in her primary.
This fall, Johnson will face the winner of the June 17 District 3 Democratic primary between DeKalb County clean energy advocate Peter Hubbard, former Atlanta state Rep. Keisha Sean Waites, technology advisor Robert Jones and Daniel Blackman, who will wage a second campaign after narrowly losing the 2020 election in a runoff to longtime Commissioner Lauren 'Bubba' McDonald.
The PSC general election will be included on ballots for the Nov. 4 municipal election.
The statewide election is taking place on an irregular schedule for PSC races that typically result in staggered six-year terms in five commission districts. This year's primary and general election will mark the first time since 2020 PSC contests will appear on Georgia ballots.
Echols' 2022 election was delayed by a lawsuit challenging the commission's at-large district election process as being unfair to Black voters.
Commissioners represent – and must reside in – one of the five districts but are elected statewide.
This years' PSC candidates said they'll work hard to drum up interest because turnout will be lower than when there are higher profile races for governor, Congress, and the White House on the ballot.
The challengers said they'll be campaigning as the best candidate to fight on behalf of the public in Georgia Power cases that the current five member Republican commissioners have routinely given the green light to increase utility costs and fossil fuels.
Echols, who is running for his third term on the PSC, said he'll campaign on his support of Georgia Power's reinvestment in its power grid and natural gas system.
Echols said he's been supportive of clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and solar energy and is proud of voting in favor of increasing affordability initiatives for Georgia Power seniors and low-income customers.
'We also want to continue to make Georgia the best place to do business because when these companies come they provide jobs and when companies compete like Hyundai and Gulfstream in Savannah, the consumer wins because they make more per hour,' he said.
Through his career in the construction industry, Muns says he learned how to build power plants in the most cost-effective way.
Muns served five years on the Georgia Professional Standards Commission and is a former Columbia County school board member.
Muns said state regulators will have important decisions to make on the growth of mega data centers, the driving force in Georgia Power's 2025 calls for significantly increasing its energy capacity over the next decade.
'In Georgia, we've got aging facilities,' Muns said. 'We're fortunate. We've got two nuclear power plant reactors that have come on board. But the thing that's concerned me as I followed that process was the significant (Plant Vogtle) cost overruns.'
Alicia Johnson said her 25 years of policy advocacy in Savannah will help her pursuit of more clean, sustainable, and affordable energy in Georgia.
She criticized the commission's approval of six Georgia Power rate hikes since the start of 2022.
'We believe that the underlying costs can be assumed by the companies themselves and not rolled over into the homes of everyday Georgia citizens who are now choosing between prescriptions and groceries, who are making choices between, paying their rent or their mortgage and getting gas,' Johnson said.
Fitz Johnson was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021 to fill a vacancy on the commission and will stand for reelection for the first time.
Heading into his first bid to keep his seat on the regulatory panel, Fitz Johnson acknowledges the pushback from many Georgia Power customers about higher utility bills.
He said it's important for the PSC to properly balance the needs of ratepayers while Georgia Power's long-term Integrated Resource Plan case and the electric rate cases are decided this year.
'As part of our rule with the data centers… they are going to have to guarantee that contract so we don't have the overbuild of infrastructure,' Johnson said. 'Georgia Power, and I'm sure the power companies around the state, are doing a lot of pre-planning to make sure that we don't overextend ourselves, to make sure that the fit is just right.'
Johnson attributed some of the rising utility costs to inflation and said he hopes to see rates stabilize under the Trump administration.
Blackman spent the last few years serving under President Joe Biden as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency where he implemented $3.5 billion in federal funding for projects that includes electrifying school buses and for water infrastructure in DeKalb County.
He said he aims to add new transparency to the extent that data centers are boosting household utility rates, while advocating for low-income energy assistance programs and helping build a secure electric grid that makes up the network of infrastructure that powers homes and businesses.
'Our grid is extraordinarily important,' Blackman said. 'Whether we're protecting it from a national security risk or an extreme weather event, my goal is to campaign on a platform that ensures we can have a reliable grid without overburdening the ratepayers.'
Waites is an Atlanta Democrat who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2012 to 2017. She resigned from the House in September 2017 to make a run for chair of the Fulton County Commission before finishing in second place. After being elected to the Atlanta City Council in 2021, Waites resigned in 2024 to launch a bid for Fulton County Superior Court clerk.
Hubbard, who works as a clean energy advocate for nonprofit Georgia Center for Energy Solutions, said he is running for the District 3 seat since the PSC 'ignores' evidence he's presented while intervening in Georgia Power Company's Integrated Resource Plan cases since 2019.
Hubbard has pledged in campaign statement that he 'will put an end to the grift and disinformation that are raising your power bills.'
'Residential power bills in Georgia have gone up $60 per month in just the last three years. This is because the current Public Service Commission approves each fossil fuel plan that Georgia Power Company gives it,' Hubbard said.
Robert Jones said he's prepared to become the District 3 state regulator after gaining experience in energy and communications regulation in California.
He criticizes the current commission's decisions allowing Georgia Power to shift some construction cost risks to consumers and the company's fight against the expansion of household rooftop solar power growth. Jones said as commissioner he would advocate for rooftop solar and reducing fossil fuel use.
'I think as an investor-owned profit making utility, they should assume more of the risk for their capital investments,' Jones said. 'I think the commission erred by rejecting net metering on solar power. Rooftop solar power is where we need to be going in Georgia. It's not a threat to Georgia Power.'
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