In a party-line vote Wednesday, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) blocked a motion for reconsideration of a 10,000-megawatt electric grid expansion approved during a December session.

The petition for reconsideration argued that Georgia Power’s request was legally deficient in requesting certification of costly new resources that rely on speculative electricity demand growth. Georgia Power cited anticipated demand from data centers as the primary driver of their projections.

The vote fell along party lines with Democratic Commissioners Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson voting to reopen the matter, and Republican Commissioners Jason Shaw, Tricia Pridemore, and Bubba McDonald voting against reconsideration.

The original vote by the PSC to expand Georgia’s power grid occurred December 19, 2025, right after voters elected two new Commissioners. Despite that electoral shift, the PSC approved an unprecedented volume of new power plants—matching the total electricitydemand of all Georgia households—largely for data centers.

“Today’s matter was a straightforward question of protecting ratepayers from unnecessary financial risk,” said Commissioner Hubbard. “Georgians voted for affordability and accountability. Instead, the PSC voted for a massive grid expansion including brand-new, expensive resources to serve data center load growth. The PSC declined to reconsider this decision, even when serious legal and financial questions were raised.”

Immediately prior to the reconsideration vote, Hubbard introduced a motion to decertify a new 797-megawatt (winter capacity) resource that the Company’s own analysis shows is not needed, and to decertify at least 2,622-megawatts of resources due to lack of executed customer contracts, beginning with the combined cycle units. These gas-fired units are the most expensive resources in the expansion plan and many lower-cost alternative options were not considered.

“My proposal is not anti-growth,” Hubbard argued in his motion. “It is pro-consumer, pro-law, and pro-common sense. We should not be asking Georgia families and small businesses to underwrite speculative projects without firm commitments.”

Under current rules, Georgia Power can begin spending on approved projects and recover those costs directly from ratepayers — even if projected demand fails to materialize.

“We are talking about billions of dollars in costs that Georgia families and small businesses could be forced to carry for decades,” says Hubbard. “Data center power demand may or may not show up as promised, and they may or may not remain in Georgia long enough to pay off the 45-year mortgage on these expensive new power plants. Residential ratepayers and businesses are most at risk of having to pay more for electricity, with only a weak three-year guarantee of ‘downward pressure on rates.’ That is not prudent regulation. That is a gamble with other people’s money.”

Note that Georgia Power promised in 2024 a $2.89 decrease on the average bill at the conclusion of the 2023 Integrated Resource Plan Update^[1], which never happened due to a rate freeze in 2025. Further note that Georgia Power promised “downward pressure on rates for 60 to 80 years”^[2] when Vogtle Units 3&4 came online, whereas rates increased permanently by 25%. The Commission also voted 3–2 along party lines to reject Hubbard’s motion.