Georgia PSC grilled in Savannah over OpenAI data center — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Georgia Public Service Commission traveled to Savannah for its first meeting outside Atlanta in over 100 years, a trip Commissioner Alicia Johnson had been pushing for since the spring to broaden public input beyond metro-area intervenors.
- The OpenAI data center planned for Effingham County and Georgia Power's contract with the company — the largest single-customer contract since Georgia Power began reporting them in 2024 — dominated the public comment period, with residents demanding more transparency.
- Savannah residents unloaded on the commission over both data centers and power bills; Sierra Club organizing strategist Michael Hawthorne asked the room, "Does anybody feel like everything's reasonably priced?" and drew a resounding "No."
- PSC Chair Jason Shaw, a Republican from south Georgia, conceded the transparency problem and said the commission is working to force Georgia Power to share more unredacted information about its data center contracts.
- Commissioners clarified that their oversight over data centers only applies when those facilities choose Georgia Power as their utility, and directed attendees to take local-zoning concerns to their elected local officials.
- Democrats Peter Hubbard and Johnson joined the five-member panel earlier this year after unseating two Republican incumbents on a campaign built around power bills and rate hikes; two more PSC seats are on the November ballot with early voting starting October 13, and a Democratic sweep would deliver the party its first majority in decades.
Why it matters: Georgia Power's contract with OpenAI is its largest single-customer deal on record, and the commission that approves it now has two newly elected Democrats who ran explicitly on power-bill anger — with two more seats in play in November, a Democratic sweep would deliver the party its first PSC majority in decades and shift leverage over how Georgia Power prices electricity for residential ratepayers alongside massive new data-center customers.
Ask SkimNews
