(The Center Square) – Georgia consumers would not see an increase in their utility bills due to the influx of data centers and other large-load customers if a bill passed by the House of Representatives continues to move forward.
House Bill 1023, passed 123-10 on Tuesday, would require utilities and data centers to include provisions in their contracts that would protect consumers from higher power bills. It mirrors a rule passed by the Public Service Commission last year.
“Georgia is experiencing unprecedented demand for energy from data centers,” said Holly Springs Republican Brad Thomas, the bill’s sponsor. “That growth can be good for our state, but only if it’s managed responsibly. The Public Service Commission has already put strong cost allocation rules in place. House Bill 1063 takes those protections and puts them into statute so they can’t be weakened, reinterpreted or bypassed down the road.”
The bill now heads to the Senate.
Data centers are the focus of several bills pending in the Georgia General Assembly. Rome Republican Chuck Hufstetler is sponsoring Senate Bill 34, which would Senate Bill 410, also sponsored by Hufstetler, would eliminate any new tax incentives but would not repeal any already in effect.
The bill comes on the heels of a report showing that data center tax breaks are not the driving force behind the surge.
Only 30% of Georgia’s data center boom can be attributed to a 2018 tax break intended to support the industry, according to a December report from the State Department of Audits and Accounts.
