{"id":139664,"date":"2026-08-14T05:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/139664\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T05:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:12:21","slug":"georgia-power-extends-deadline-for-psc-to-consider-its-contract-with-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/139664\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Power extends deadline for PSC to consider its contract with OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

With a deadline a day away and staff at the Public Service Commission prepared to raise objections to its contract terms with data center operator OpenAI, Georgia Power on Thursday bought itself more time to negotiate. <\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrowse Data Centers & Coastal Georgia
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Stories on projects, policy, legislation\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company has agreed that the filing date of the contract for the purposes of a 30-day review cycle will be July 27, 2026 to allow Staff additional time to consider the contract,\u201d Brandon Marzo, an attorney representing Georgia Power wrote to the PSC in a letter dated Aug. 13.<\/a><\/p>\n

The move pushes the staff review period deadline from Aug. 14 to Aug. 26 giving Georgia Power time to provide staff with additional information, PSC spokesman Tom Krause explained in a media advisory.<\/p>\n

OpenAI, the company behind artificial intelligence giant ChatGPT, is developing the $20 billion Effingham County data center campus that\u2019s projected to launch in 2028. Georgia Power will provide the data center with 3.2 gigawatts of energy \u2014 enough to power Atlanta three times over \u2014 to be delivered in phases from 2028 to 2032.<\/p>\n

Under a\u00a0rule the commission passed in April 2025<\/a>\u00a0Georgia Power must provide the PSC all new contracts with data centers over 100 megawatts at least 30 days before execution.\u00a0Last year\u2019s rule\u00a0<\/a>states that the PSC staff can file objections to a contract and \u201cthe company and commission staff will work together in good faith to resolve any such objections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Youtube
\nThe PSC\u2019s discussion of the data center contract begins at the 24-minute mark in this video. <\/p>\n

At a public meeting of the PSC Thursday<\/a>, Tom Bond, the agency\u2019s director of utilities, said the staff was finished with its review.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, unless the company agrees to certain changes, staff would file an objection,\u201d he told Commissioner Peter Hubbard, who asked if staff planned to file any objections.<\/p>\n

Under commission rules, if staff files an objection, the contract shall be approved if the commission takes no action within 30 days after the staff\u2019s filing.<\/p>\n

The terms of the contract are considered to be trade secrets. The copy released to the public was fully redacted. <\/a> <\/p>\n

At the PSC meeting, on Thursday morning before the deadline was extended, Hubbard argued for a more active role for the five-member elected commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not comfortable with just allowing staff to review this on their own,\u201d said Hubbard, one of two Democrats elected to the PSC last fall as part of a public backlash against rising electricity prices. \u201cI think that we, as a commission, should take a position on this, and so I\u2019ve asked that staff object to the contract that is in front of us until we have sufficient financial guardrails in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other Democrat on the majority Republican five-person board, Alicia Johnson, reiterated Hubbard\u2019s stance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will say that any customer who is requiring this amount of energy should expect an equal amount of rigor and scrutiny,\u201d she said. Johnson doesn\u2019t want the decision to be staff\u2019s alone. \u201cWe too, as regulators, have to understand all aspects of what\u2019s before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public commenters at the PSC Thursday made appeals for more transparency in the process and greater accountability from elected officials.<\/p>\n

Jeff Beauvais, the north coast advocate for One Hundred Miles, called for a review period of at least 60 days and for giving the staff and commissioners the ability to consider even longer timelines for large or complex projects like the OpenAI data center. He also wants to see more rigorous requirements for utility providers to claim trade secrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe validity of completely redacting the public disclosure document for this project strains credulity when the location, projected peak power demand, and many other aspects of it are already public knowledge,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 (T)he complete lack of any public information about the content of this contract is deeply troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Woodall, the legislative chair of the Sierra Club in Georgia, called Georgia Power\u2019s continued use of coal and addition of natural gas-fired plants to power data centers an \u201cenvironmental disaster.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have to consider the economic disaster for the ratepayers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He, too, called for greater transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I read the 100-page contract here between OpenAI and Georgia Power. It didn\u2019t take about five seconds, because it just says \u2018redacted in its entirety.\u201d I don\u2019t think the people of Georgia are going to trust that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking with The Current after Georgia Power filed its letter, Hubbard said the additional time seemed insufficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s enough time to go through the changes I\u2019d like to see,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some protections but they should be greater. It\u2019s a big, risky bet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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