Georgia Power Co. filed its 2025 resource plan with state regulators Jan. 31, proposing measures including nuclear uprates, additional gas and renewable generation and delayed retirements of fossil units in order to meet expected "extraordinary" load growth.
The Southern Co. subsidiary is projecting about 8.2 GW of load growth over the next six years — an increase of more than 2.2 GW in peak demand by the end of 2030 compared to the utility's projections in its 2023 resource plan update. It expects about 7% annual demand growth through winter 2030-2031. (Docket No. 56002)
Georgia Power anticipates nearly 6 GW of load growth as soon as winter 2028-2029 and 9.4 GW over the next 10 years through the winter of 2034-2035.
The 2025 resource plan proposal includes a "growing pipeline of potential and committed large-load customers," the utility said.
"The significant increase in the projected demand for energy ... reflects the extraordinary growth associated with numerous large-load projects Georgia Power has been selected to serve as well as a considerable pipeline of potential future projects," Georgia Power said in its plan. "The size of these projects far exceeds historical annual norms, with some individual projects surpassing 1,000 MW."
Georgia Power's large-load pipeline grew to 22.8 GW as of the end of June 2024, a roughly 6.8 GW increase since filing its 2023 resource plan update in October 2023.
Over the same period — which is the timeframe on which the IRP's 2025 load forecast is based — the number of large-load customers who committed to Georgia Power grew by 10 projects to 7.3 GW. Adding in commitments made in the third quarter of 2024, that tally rises to 8 GW, and the company said it expects projects will "ramp up significantly in the near term."
Through 2031, Georgia Power expects a capacity need of 9 GW. The utility has active requests for proposals for up to 9.5 GW of capacity and also RFPs for more than 3.5 GW of renewable resources by the end of 2030. To address capacity needs beyond 2031, the company plans to conduct all-source capacity requests for proposals, including an RFP in the third quarter of 2025 to meet needs in 2032 and 2033, while also looking to add up to 4 GW of incremental renewables by 2035.
Capacity additions, extensions
To help meet capacity needs, Georgia Power proposed power uprates totaling 54 MW for units 1 and 2 of its Vogtle Nuclear Plant and 58 MW for its Edwin I Hatch nuclear plant, for a combined capacity increase of 112 MW, some of which may be available as soon as the winter of 2028 or 2029.
Those uprates may require some improvements and upgrades to existing units, the company said, but the investments would be "supported by federal and state incentives," including 2022 Inflation Reduction Act-enabled production tax credits and US Energy Department loan guarantees.
The utility also proposed an expansion of gas generation, with upgrades to add another 268 MW at its McIntosh Combined Cycle plant. It also proposed extending operation of some coal and gas units through at least 2034 "with additional upgrades and compliance activities planned at multiple facilities."
Plants planned for extension include coal-fired units at plants Bowen, Scherer and Gaston, which began operating in 1971, 1982 and 1960, respectively. Georgia Power proposed operating Scheer unit 3 through 2035 or 2038, Gaston units 1-4 and A through the end of 2034 and the Bowen units beyond 2034.
Investments in existing assets, including extending units, upgrading gas and nuclear units and working to preserve existing hydro generation, represent more than 1,590 MW, according to the IRP.
The proposed expansions and extensions of fossil-based capacity drew some sharp criticism. "Georgia Power has already increased electricity bills because of its reliance on dirty fossil fuels," said Maggie Shober, research director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "There is room for a lot more clean energy in Georgia's future."
Georgia Power's long-term plans include an additional 4 GW of renewable resources — primarily solar — by 2035, with at least 1.1 GW in the 2025 integrated resource plan (IRP). Those new resources would expand the company's renewable resource portfolio to about 11 GW by 2035.
Procurement of battery energy storage projects is also expected to be part of the utility's 2032 and 2033 requests for proposals, building on current plans to add more than 1.5 GW of storage in coming years.
The resource plan also includes continued efforts to "modernize" the utility's hydro fleet with projects at nine existing plants for units not previously approved for modernization, which Georgia Power said should allow them to operate for at least another 40 years.
"Clean energy resources and transmission solutions are vital to reducing customer costs and maintaining the high level of reliability Georgians have grown accustomed to," said Simon Mahan, executive director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association.
Transmission and reliability
The 2025 integrated resource plan also includes Georgia Power's 10-year transmission plan, with improvements proposed for the grid including 1,000 miles of new transmission lines in an effort to improve efficiency and reliability, the company said.
The utility outlined nearly two-dozen 230-kV or 400-kV transmission projects, most in the planning stage, needed over the next eight years.
Georgia Power is targeting a 26% winter reserve margin and increasing its summer target reserve margin from 16.25% to 20%.
Customer programs
Georgia Power also included a new solar plus storage program for residential and small commercial customers in its plan, along with a new distributed energy resource-enabled demand response program to meet capacity and resiliency needs of large customers.
The company proposed expanding existing customer subscription programs to allow for the addition of more renewable resources available for customer subscriptions, according to the IRP.
The 2025 IRP also includes expansion of demand-side management programs, including for income-qualified customers.
Regulators approved Georgia Power's most recent resource plan update in April 2024, when utility officials told the Georgia Public Service Commission its request for an unscheduled, early update to its 2023 resource plan was driven by forecasts showing 17 times greater load growth than it had expected two years prior. That followed a trend among Southeast utilities of rising power demand forecasts, driven in part by an expected increase in large-load customers such as datacenters.
The utility's proposals in the 2025 integrated resource plan are subject to approval by regulators.
