In the fall of 2025, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved Georgia Power’s latest Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP. The IRP is the utility’s long term roadmap for meeting projected electricity demand. It determines what kinds of power plants will be built, how much infrastructure will be added to the grid, and ultimately what customers will pay. This most recent plan was shaped heavily by one dominant factor: an unprecedented surge in projected electricity demand driven largely by data center expansion across the state.

Georgia Power told regulators that it expects rapid load growth in the coming years, much of it tied to new and proposed data centers. To meet that demand, the utility proposed adding thousands of megawatts of new generation.