Georgia Power is close to getting approval for a large natural-gas-heavy capacity expansion built around projected demand from data centers and AI workloads.
Regulatory staff reversed course and now back nearly the full plan after a deal that temporarily shields residential customers, but that protection only runs from 2029 to 2031.
Critics, including incoming commissioners, warn of a potential “data center bubble,” pointing out that speculative hyperscale and large-load customers could leave ratepayers stuck with up to $50–60 billion in long-lived generation assets.
Several stakeholders argued new plants should be tied to executed large-load contracts, which is the real test of whether AI and cloud capacity is durable or just chasing incentives.
Gas-heavy build-out raises long-term climate and policy risk just as AI data centers are driving steeper peak demand and tougher cooling and reliability requirements.
Economic development advocates see these “large load” customers as tax-base engines, but that benefit is highly local while the grid and stranded-asset risks are statewide.
Worth tracking as an early example of how AI data center growth is reshaping utility planning, risk allocation, and the true cost of GPU-era power.
Source: Tentative agreement with Georgia Power could mean new capacity for data centers
