ATLANTA (AP) — State regulators began hearings Tuesday on Georgia Power Co.’s request to raise rates by 12% over the next three years, setting up clashes over how much profit the utility should earn, how much solar panel owners should be paid and how rates should be structured.
The five elected members of the Georgia Public Service Commission are scheduled to decide in December on the company’s request to collect a cumulative $2.9 billion more from its 2.7 million customers beginning in January. Changes are likely before any vote.
The company says it needs more money to improve the grid, retire old coal plants, acquire electricity from new sources and upgrade customer-facing computer systems.
A residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month pays Georgia Power an average of $128 a month now, the company has said. Under the plan, that would rise by $14.32 a month in 2023, reaching a total of $16.29 more over the three-year period. That’s nearly $200 a year more by 2025.
However, electricity bills are likely to go up even more. Commissioners have already approved plans for the company to increase rates by $3.78 a month when the first of two new nuclear units being built at Plant Vogtle starts generating electricity, likely early next year. A bigger increase could follow the second new reactor coming online, possibly in 2024. Preston Thomas, a staff attorney for the commission, said Tuesday that those combined increases could push bills up $55 or $60 over the next three years.