This coverage was achieved through a partnership between GRIS and DadNPR station in Atlanta.
After six increases in bills in the past three years, the energy rates in Georgia will now remain as they are at the present time.
According to a deal agreed on Tuesday by the Georgia Public Service Committee, the prices of Georgia Power will remain the same over the next three years, although the deal does not include some costs, which may cause the bills to increase next year.
“Freezing the rate resulting from this plan is a great result of customers,” Kim Green, CEO of Georgia Power, said in a statement.
Energy bills vary widely by state and were higher in 2024 of 2023, according to Al -Tahdi Energy Information Management. Georgia’s bills were slightly higher than the national average in 2024, which ranged from $ 145 to $ 165 per month, but the average of these numbers is calculated in all customers, not based on the prices of individual bills or facilities. Atlanta has some of the highest energy burdens in the country, according to L. Georgia TechnologyEspecially among families with low and black income-which means that these residents pay a percentage higher than their electricity income.
According to the agreement reached by Georgia Power and the committee’s employees, it was later clarified by the Georgia Manufacturers Association and Utilities Management Services, the basic rates that help in determining energy bills will remain the same for three years – except for the cost of recovery from Hilini, which is the most harmful storm in the history of Georgia Power.
GEorgia Power is also scheduled to decline the cost of fuel such as coal and natural gas next year, which may also increase bills – although low fuel prices have decreased fuel prices may lead to a decrease in bills, or at least cancel additional costs from Helen.
“Customers have witnessed an unprecedented inflation in the energy sector throughout the United States,” the committee chairman, Jasson Show, said in a statement. “My fellow commissioners, their employees and Georgia urged the authority to reach some agreement as the basis will not exceed. This is only good news for energy motivators in Georgia.”
Shaw is right to energy prices at the country level: The recent high interest rates in Georgia Power are part of the national trend that witnessed an increase in the rate of facilities request a total of $ 18.13 billion in 2023, although the actual approved increases were less, according to what he said. S & P Global.
But some critics have been less certain that freezing prices for customers. The deal exceeds the process of identifying intense rates that last for months, during which interested parties – including energy defenders, consumers, municipalities, and senior power users such as the transportation authority in Atlanta, Walmart and even the federal government – were exceeded through finance and Georgia Power. Without those sessions, some have argued, it is impossible to know if freezing prices is the best possible deal for customers.
“The daily Georgians cannot be a hook for the data center in Georgia Power,” Bob Sheer, a lawyer at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “The next three years are the dependency of the electrical network and deserve more scrutiny than what happened here.”
Critics of the deal also concerns that “price freezing” is a wrong designation due to the adjustment of the storms that will happen next year. Others raised fears that by postponing costs to maintain prices as it is now, the plan will lead to a greater price rise in 2028.
Georgia Authority officials He denied both fears In listening sessions last week. They argued that the decrease in fuel costs could balance the costs of the storm, leaving the price rates themselves or even less, and that savings from postponing the cost will exceed the next three years.
Commissioner Buba McDonald objected to the current energy rates – the rates that were now extended – when it was approved in 2022 because he felt that Georgia Power’s profits were very high. The committee allowed a return on property rights for energy investors in Georgia, ranging between 9.5 percent and 11.9 percent, which is higher than The national average of that year from 9.54 percent. McDonald repeated this objection on Tuesday and suggested a proposal to reduce the ceiling of the tool profit, but no other commissioners did the proposal and died without a vote.
In the end, McDonald joined his fellow authorities to vote to freeze the rate, and passed unanimously.
