Georgia Power just secured a tentative deal to massively expand generation capacity, mostly gas, driven largely by projected AI and data center load.
Regulators’ staff flipped from backing only a small fraction of the request to supporting almost the full buildout, after Georgia Power pledged that existing customers won’t pay for serving “large load” data centers, but that protection only runs from 2029–2031.
The build plan carries an estimated $17 billion price tag that critics say could swell to $50–60 billion over 45 years, with real concern that a “data center bubble” or customers chasing cheaper power in other states could leave stranded assets.
Local business voices framed the expansion as essential infrastructure for jobs and tax base, while community, environmental, and technical stakeholders pushed hard on fossil fuel lock-in, climate impact, and ratepayer risk.
A key operational signal is that Georgia is willing to build major gas capacity ahead of firm long-term contracts, banking on hyperscaler and AI demand materializing at scale.
For AI infra planners, this underscores how energy policy, politics, and timing of commission turnover directly shape where GPU-heavy data centers can realistically land.
The full article is worth a read for how a single state-level power deal can tilt the map of future AI data center siting and cost.
Source: Tentative agreement with Georgia Power could mean new capacity for data centers – Grice Connect
