Georgia Power & Southern Company: Navigating Industrial Tariffs Post-Vogtle
Following the commercial operation of Plant Vogtle\'s nuclear Units 3 and 4, the largest utility in the state—Georgia Power (a Southern Company subsidiary)—has begun recovering over $6.5 billion in construction costs through structural base rate increases. For commercial and industrial facilities, this translates to aggressive tariff adjustments spanning 2025 and 2026, forcing a heavy emphasis on demand management and the rare "900 kW Customer Choice" provision.
Executive Impact
- →The Vogtle Hangover: The monumental cost overruns of the nuclear expansion are now permanently baked into the base rate structure for the next operational generation.
- →The 900 kW Loophole: Unlike neighboring regulated states, Georgia allows a one-time "Customer Choice" for newly constructed commercial buildings with a connected load exceeding 900 kW, permitting them to bypass Georgia Power and select an EMC (Electric Membership Corporation).
- →Real-Time Pricing (RTP) Tariffs: Heavily integrated manufacturers are being pushed toward complex Day-Ahead or Hour-Ahead RTP, exposing operations to extreme price volatility during Southeast heatwaves.
The True Cost of Southern Nuclear
Plant Vogtle represents the first new nuclear generation constructed from scratch in the United States in over three decades. While the zero-carbon megawatt baseload provides immense grid stability for Southern Company, the financial burden of its decades-long construction is severe.
The Georgia Public Service Commission has approved multi-tiered rate pass-throughs that began impacting commercial bills heavily in late 2024 and have established a higher permanent cost "floor" for 2026. This means the era of reliably cheap Southeastern manufacturing power has structurally shifted upward.
The Georgia Territorial Act & 900 kW Exception
Georgia is fundamentally a regulated, franchised state under the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act. A retail business operating in Atlanta cannot simply switch to Constellation or Direct Energy like they could in Chicago or Philadelphia.
However, a critical loophole exists: The >900 kW connected load provision.
If a corporation is constructing a *new* commercial or industrial facility measuring at least 900 kW of connected electric load, they are granted a one-time right to choose between Georgia Power, an EMC (Electric Membership Corporation), or MEAG (Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia) utility. Once chosen, that decision is locked in for the life of the facility. For manufacturers establishing high-output footprint in the Southeast, this single procurement decision frequently dictates millions of dollars in 10-year operating expenditures.
Surviving Georgia Power RTP Tariffs
Existing facilities trapped under Georgia Power must turn to forensic tariff analysis. Georgia Power pushes high-volume industrial load onto Real-Time Pricing (RTP) tariffs (such as RTP-DA or RTP-HA).
Under RTP schedules, commercial buyers receive a "Customer Baseline Load" (CBL). Power consumed *below* the CBL is billed at a fixed standard rate, but any power consumed *above* the CBL is exposed to volatile hourly wholesale market prices. During a severe August heatwave in the Southeast, facilities without robust industrial automation or load-shedding capabilities can face staggering hourly penalties.