ATLANTA, GA – Today, the Sierra Club, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) submitted testimony in the Georgia Power rate case proceedings challenging the lack of transparency and procedural safeguards.
Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) staff announced they reached an agreement on May 19, claiming it would freeze base rates for consumers for three years. In reality, rates will go up at least twice before 2028 (in an all-source certification proceeding and in a special procedure next year for storm damage recovery). The fuel docket, scheduled for Q1 of 2026, will also likely result in a rate increase.
Since electric utilities are monopolies, the PSC typically decides whether Georgia Power can change rates after several months of a litigated process that includes testimony and cross-examination from Georgia Power, PSC staff and intervening parties. Instead, the proposed settlement shortens that time to about a month, without sufficient filings or appropriate opportunities for discovery. While intervenors do not have discovery rights in Georgia, they routinely rely on PSC staff to build a robust record. Meanwhile, Georgia Power has yet to release crucial information to support their estimations. And Georgia Power’s 2023 promise to reduce bills by $2.89 per month is entirely absent from the proposed stipulation.
“This proposal will not stop electricity bills from going up. Georgia Power can ask for a rate increase this July, can still file for a rate increase if at any point its return on equity drops below its earnings band– and has already announced its plans to charge customers extra fees to pay for Hurricane Helene damages starting early next year,” said Lexy Doherty, Campaign Organizing Strategist with the Sierra Club. “Georgia Power is hoping buzz words like ‘rate freeze’ will disguise the fact that this proposal will do nothing to help Georgians who have faced six rate increases in less than three years. Georgians deserve an open and transparent ratemaking process, and for Georgia Power to make good on their promise to lower base rates.”
The proposed agreement came ahead of the PSC’s June 17 primary election and showed a suspicious level of coordination between the company, the PSC, and Gov. Brian Kemp, leading to an ethics complaint against a majority of the PSC’s members.
Last year, the PSC approved an “emergency” request for more fossil fuel-generated power to serve new load customers that Georgia Power promised would put “downward pressure” on rates after a half-dozen recent increases. The members of the PSC must have forgotten this promise, maybe because none of them live in Georgia Power territory or pay Georgia Power’s outrageously high bills. Now it seems the best we can hope for is a settlement to avoid a full rate case that will do nothing to help customers who are already struggling to keep the lights on. What good is it if the bully with his foot on your back promises he won’t press down any harder?
“Georgia Power’s proposal is all smoke and mirrors to hide its true intentions. For the first time in five years, members of the PSC are going to have to face voters, and Georgia Power is worried that its all-you-can-eat buffet may be about to close,” said Adrien Webber, Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Director. “So the company is dangling a ‘rate freeze’ in front of the public while locking in a profit margin well above the industry average for years to come. Meanwhile, Georgia Power is already planning to come back for more cash out of ratepayers’ pockets early next year once the elections are settled to pay for damage from extreme weather. This is a bad-faith proposal to keep information away from the public and guard against the coming oversight if Georgia Power’s bought-and-paid-for commissioners get thrown out of office.”
“It is disingenuous to call this deal a ‘rate freeze’ when we know that Georgia Power customers will see their bills increase within the next three years, at least two times. Ratepayers deserve assurance that the PSC and Georgia Power are being good stewards, operating transparently, and acting in customers’ best interests; not simply playing politics,” said Patrick King II, state policy director with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Georgia Power customers’ high bills have been primarily driven by expensive fossil fuels, which aren’t a part of Georgia Power’s proposed settlement. With more fossil fuel costs expected, combined with known storm damage costs, bills will only continue to go up. Georgia Power’s IRP could reduce this risk by cutting fossil fuel reliance, but instead, they are doubling down. This settlement is a way for Georgia Power to avoid oversight, and does not in fact freeze Georgia Power customers’ bills,” said Maggie Shober, Research Director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
