Georgia Power’s 3,200 MW OpenAI Contract Clears With a $180 Bill-Savings Promise and Redacted Terms
- Data Centers Policy & Markets Regulatory State & Local Regulation
Marin Holt
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- 8 minutes read
- Contract size: 3,200 MW
- Flexible demand commitment: up to 1,000 MW
- Projected residential savings: $180 a year from 2029
- Projected annual system savings: $950 million from 2029
- Prior savings projection: $102 a year
The Georgia Public Service Commission process cleared Georgia Power’s contract for an OpenAI campus in Effingham County on August 26. The deal covers up to 3,200 MW. Georgia Power says the contract and its wider large-load book will produce $950 million in annual system savings from 2029. For a home using 1,000 kWh a month, that is about $15 a month. Call it $180 a year.
The contract terms themselves are trade secrets. The public filing carries full redactions, and Commissioner Peter Hubbard says it stays that way after execution.
What Actually Changed
OpenAI takes service at up to 3,200 MW at the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub. The company agreed to fund the infrastructure built specifically to serve the site. It also committed up to 1,000 MW of flexible demand response. That lets Georgia Power reduce deliveries to the campus at statewide peaks. The flexible share is 31% of the contract.
The savings figure moved. Georgia Power previously put the residential benefit at $102 a year. The number now quoted is $180 a year, and both figures start in 2029. Kim Greene, the company’s chief executive, framed the result plainly. “Data centers are paying more so families and small businesses can pay less,” Greene said.
What Did Not Change
Nobody outside the commission gets to check the arithmetic. The Current reported full redactions across the publicly released contract. Hubbard confirmed it stays secret after execution. The $950 million and the $180 rest on terms that ratepayers cannot read.
The 2029 start date did not move either. A customer reading a headline about lower bills this week waits three years for the first dollar. The savings also depend on the large-load portfolio filling as forecast.
Enforcement Reality
A PSC rule adopted in April 2025 requires 30 days of advance notice for data center contracts above 100 MW. Commission staff filed objections as the original August 14 deadline approached. Georgia Power extended the review by 12 days to August 26. That new date landed one day before the commission’s next scheduled meeting on August 27.
The sequence drew a direct question. “Why is Georgia Power so concerned with disempowering commissioners by ensuring the contract deadline is reached a day before the next PSC meeting?” asked Patty Durand, founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy. Hubbard said staff did win a further guarantee that costs will not shift from data centers and other large-load customers onto everyone else.
That guarantee is the load-bearing protection in the deal, and its text stays redacted. Enforcement depends on a cost-allocation promise the public cannot audit. The trigger conditions on the 1,000 MW curtailment right stay unpublished too.
Why It Matters
Utilities across the country now pitch large-load contracts as a way to hold down residential bills. Georgia has put a number on that pitch, and the number nearly doubled between filings without a public showing of the work. Regulators in other states will meet the same structure.
For anyone tracking large-load tariffs, the useful detail is the flexibility ratio. OpenAI committed 1,000 MW of a 3,200 MW load to curtailment. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and PJM have all built large-load rules around take-or-pay thresholds and curtailment obligations. The 31% figure gives a concrete benchmark to argue against. Ask what fraction of load a proposed contract makes interruptible, and on whose call.
Critical Perspective
Georgia Power puts the residential benefit at $180 a year starting in 2029, up from $102 a year, and nobody outside the commission can read the contract that produces either number. Commissioner Peter Hubbard says the filing stays redacted after execution, so the cost-shift guarantee that protects other ratepayers is a promise the public has never seen. OpenAI committed 1,000 MW of a 3,200 MW load to curtailment, which leaves 2,200 MW firm on Georgia Power’s system. What happens to the $180 if the rest of the large-load book never signs?
Sources
- The Current, PSC deadline arrives for Georgia Power’s 3.2-gigawatt OpenAI data center contract (Aug 25, 2026)
- WTOC, Georgia Power’s OpenAI contract in Effingham County approved, expected to lower residential bills (Aug 27, 2026)
- The Current, Anatomy of a secret Coastal Georgia data center deal (Aug 8, 2026)
- Data Center Dynamics, OpenAI plans 3.2GW data center campus in Effingham County, Georgia
- WJBF, State officials approve Georgia Power’s contract for OpenAI center in Effingham County (Aug 27, 2026)
