Recapping the 2022 Rate Case

In case you haven’t heard, Georgia Power is increasing our power bills this year, and next year … and the year after that. All thanks to the Georgia Public Service Commission’s (PSC) approval of the Georgia Power 2022 rate plan. 

Here are the main takeaways from the final plan the PSC approved:

• Bills, bills, bills
  • Georgia Power’s original proposal would have had customers paying an average of $16 more on their power bill each month starting in January 2023. One major change in the final, approved plan is that rate hikes will be spaced over the next three years. The first year impact on the typical residential customer will be a 2.8% increase, approximately $3.60/month followed by approximately a 4.5% increase in 2024 and 2025. 
• PSC dropped more coal in your stocking
  • Thanks to a 2019 PSC decision, customers are stuck footing the bill to clean up Georgia Power’s coal ash mess. Additional coal ash remediation costs were approved this year, but due  to strong advocacy by Sierra Club and our allies, in the future, the PSC can evaluate whether costs were reasonable and justified.
• “Smart Usage” plan was found to be not very smart
  • Customers will not be auto-enrolled into Georgia Power’s “Smart Usage” Rate Plan, which the PSC Staff and intervenors found can actually cost customers more money than traditional rate plans. 
• Georgia Power will continue to make bank
  • The rate case sets both Georgia Power’s target profit (the return on equity or ROE) and also its maximum profit. The PSC voted to set Georgia Power’s target ROE to 10.5% and the maximum at 11.9%.
  • Georgia Power almost always earns at or above its maximum profit allowance, which means Georgia Power will consistently earn more than 2% above the national utility average of 9.5%.
• PSC keeps burning daylight
  • The PSC chose not to increase the maxed-out 5,000 customer cap for the monthly solar rooftop billing program, which functionally ends incentives for any new customers who want to reap the benefits of self-generation. 
• Electric vehicles are charging up, slowly but surely 
  • The PSC approved around $53 million for the Make Ready program, which allows Georgia Power to pay for the installation and maintenance of the electrical infrastructure needed to support EV charging plus an additional $6 million for a Community Charging program. Unfortunately, the PSC decreased the utility’s original proposal by 35%.
  • Luckily, Georgia Power’s investments have to be geared toward public schools, public fleets and publicly available charging. 

Thanks to everyone who took the time to write to the PSC and make their voices heard! We know we didn’t get everything we asked for, but we are incredibly proud that so many Georgians stood up for themselves and their communities against Georgia Power’s greedy proposal.

Looking ahead to 2023, there will be many more opportunities to continue our fight for clean, affordable energy for all. Here are a few of the things on our radar for this year:

• Fossil fuel prices continue to climb
  • Georgia Power will come back to the PSC this February to ask for another rate hike, due to the cost of fossil fuels like coal and fracked gas. 
  • Customers were just hit with another rate hike this month, enough is enough! The PSC needs to do its job and prioritize affordable energy for all, rather than Georgia Power’s profits. 
• Plant Vogtle sings the blues
  • Did you hear that Georgia Power’s mega-nuclear project, Plant Vogtle, was delayed again? (Did you know that water is wet?) With years of delays and cost overruns, customers are already paying an arm and a leg for Georgia Power’s nuclear boondoggle, even without using a kilowatt of electricity from the project. 
  • If and when the plant comes online (which Georgia Power claims will be this year, we aren’t holding our breath), customers will be hit with an automatic rate hike.
• Coal Ash is still polluting our water
  • Things are murky when it comes to coal ash at the moment. There are several court cases, federal EPA rulemaking processes, and unapproved permits that leave coal ash plans in limbo. 
  • There are still more than 90 million tons of coal ash in GA, and at many sites, Georgia Power wants to cut corners with the safety of our water by refusing to store coal ash in the safest way possible: in dry, lined pits that are away from waterways. We will continue to push for only the strongest, safest permits because everyone deserves clean water. 
  • We’ll be closely monitoring any and all developments, and we’ll let you know when it’s time to act! Be sure to sign up for updates at GeorgiaCoalAsh.org.