Public Service Commission seeks staff for construction monitoring as data‑center load grows

Reese McAllister, executive director of the Public Service Commission, told the subcommittee the PSC is requesting the House‑included amended FY26 funding for one engineer and one financial analyst to support construction monitoring of major Georgia Power projects and to manage workload tied to rapid growth in large electric customers, notably data centers.

McAllister said projections of new load have increased materially since 2022; the transcript records an earlier estimate of roughly 400 megawatts and a more recent projection nearer 10,000 megawatts, which the PSC used to illustrate scale relative to Georgia Power’s current roughly 22,000 megawatts of capacity. He stressed the PSC’s role is not siting or approving data‑center locations but ensuring that infrastructure expenditures are prudent and not shifted onto existing ratepayers.

Utility staff explained that construction monitors perform real‑time oversight — reviewing project schedules, performance metrics, and industry standards during construction so the commission can deny imprudent costs from later inclusion in rate base. The PSC also summarized rules adopted for large customers, including minimum billing requirements, long contract terms and collateral, to ensure incremental costs are recoverable from the customers that cause them.

When asked whether existing customers will bear costs caused by new data centers, PSC staff answered in the hearing that the commission’s goal is no, adding that costs are placed in rate base and then allocated by rate case design to the customer classes that cause them.

What’s next: the PSC asked the subcommittee to retain the House funding for two positions (prorated amounts were cited for FY26) and said it may seek additional construction monitors in future cycles as construction workload progresses.