Power bills, storm costs at center of Georgia Public Service Commission race

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) are up for re-election in what advocates are calling one of the most important elections in recent years for Georgians.

The PSC regulates utilities in Georgia and decides whether power bills increase. The election comes after the commission approved six rate increases for Georgia Power since 2022, while the company’s profits rose by 40 percent as of the end of last year.

READ: Utility rates are on the rise- so are Georgia Power’s profits.

The seat representing Savannah is up for re-election, with early voting currently underway.

Incumbent voted for all rate increases since 2022

Rising power bills, data centers, and storm recovery are topics at the forefront of the Public Service Commission election between incumbent Republican Tim Echols and Democratic challenger Dr. Alicia Johnson.

Echols has served on the PSC since 2010 and voted to pass every rate increase Georgia Power customers have seen since 2022. He also recently voted to freeze Georgia Power’s base rates, he says, after hearing from constituents about the financial burden rate increases had cause them.

Even with base rates frozen, Georgia Power is expected to file to recover expenses associated with Hurricane Helene next year. The company noted to shareholders in SEC filings that the storm cost $1.1 billion.

READ: Georgia Power could raise rates to cover losses from Helene

“It’s an enormous amount of manpower that went into just the storm recovery. So I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to lower them, but freezing the rates, I think it’s going to give people a chance to take a breath financially,” Echols said.

Dr. Alicia Johnson said analyzing whether Georgia Power’s recovery request is reasonable should not be taken lightly, as the company made $2.5 billion in 2024.

“While we have a rate freeze, they left a window to come back and ask for more money around the storm that we recently all faced, Helene, to do storm recovery. And so whoever’s elected to this position, that will be one of the first major decisions they review, is looking at and scrutinizing that recovery process,” Johnson said.

Data centers emerge as major issue

Another issue the elected candidate will face is data centers and the rise of AI.

Echols voted in favor of a rule that passed unanimously requiring any new customers using more than 100 megawatts of energy to be billed differently and pay for any costs to transmit and distribute power to them.

“I think we’ve protected rate payers. In fact, based on the pricing scheme that we set up, rates will drop a couple of dollars per month over, not this year, but by the time we build out all of this AI power, we anticipate them paying for all of it, slightly lowering people’s bills,” Echols said.

Johnson said questions about data centers go further than just power bills.

“Why don’t we have community benefit agreements to ensure that the communities that they’re extracting from, that they also reinvest in? And they help to transition and ensure that those communities’ water supplies are not tapped out or their energy, our grid is not maxed out,” Johnson said.

Both candidates said they want people to vote in an election that will be consequential to everyone’s wallets.

Early voting ends on October 31. The PSC is unique in that voters can vote for their district’s seat and also vote in the District 3 election.