(The Center Square) – The state Public Service Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on an agreement that could lock in Georgia Power’s rates for the next three years.
Gov. Brian Kemp touted the agreement as a positive move for Georgia after it was announced in May.
“Our utility providers are at the table and are active partners in bringing jobs and investments to our state,” Kemp said. “As constitutional officer, the PSC members are also great partners in our constant work and the result as I have said many times over the last seven months, we’ve seen over 193,000 job announcements and over $90 billion in investment committee to Georgia just since 2019.”
Georgia Power will be able to go back before the Public Service Commission in 2026 to discuss recovery costs for the hurricanes that swept through the state in 2024, a move Kemp called perfectly reasonable.
“You know all our utility partners experienced extreme costs,” Kemp said. “We did in state government. But I think the good news for right now is the rates are going to be frozen.”
Not everyone is convinced the rate freeze is a good thing. Former Public Service Commission Patty Durand, founder of the group Georgians for Affordable Energy, said the agreement freezes rates but does not freeze spending.
“This is not a rate freeze because Hurricane Helene costs will raise rates, resource procurement will raise rate, fossil fuel surcharges will raise rates, but ignoring all that the rate freeze hides the cost of massive fossil fuel expansion underway for three years,” Durand said Thursday at a hearing on the freeze.
Public Service Commission Chairman Jason Shaw said the agreement will stave off a rate increase.
“We were looking at a normal cycle for a rate case, which would have been I guarantee you a rate increase request from the Georgia Power Company,” Shaw said when announcing the freeze. “The fact that we are standing here not going into a debate and a hearing process for a rate increase, we’re in a much better situation.”
