Georgia's Public Service Commission (PSC), the body that decides how the state's largest electric utility makes electricity and how much it charges, usually holds its meetings in Atlanta. That means most public commenters are from the metro area. Since spring, Commissioner Alicia Johnson, one of two recently elected Democrats, has been pushing for meetings elsewhere. On Tuesday, the PSC finally held a meeting in Savannah.
"For over 100 years, the Public Service Commission has met in Atlanta and rarely, if at all, has meetings across the state," said Johnson, whose district includes Chatham and Effingham counties. "This was an opportunity for me to have our commissioners come out and actually speak with their constituents outside of Atlanta to move away just from hearing the voices of interveners or advocates."
The commissioners went to Savannah to hear from coastal residents. After a brief administrative meeting and a presentation on the PSC's recent actions on data centers - including approval of Georgia Power's contract with OpenAI and new protections for regular customers - the floor opened for public comments.
Many speakers voiced concerns about the OpenAI data center planned for Effingham County, just outside Savannah, and called for more transparency around the company's contract with Georgia Power - the largest for a single customer since the utility started reporting its contracts in 2024.
"There's a reason you're named the Public Service Commission and not the Georgia Power service commission or the OpenAI service commission," said Bill Wright of Pooler, a city northwest of Savannah. "Your name tells you where your loyalty should lie."
The commissioners clarified that their involvement with data centers is limited: they only oversee electricity generation and sales if a data center chooses Georgia Power as its utility. They encouraged attendees to take their concerns to local elected officials.
Commenters also criticized the commission over power bills. Michael Hawthorne, an organizing strategist with the Sierra Club, argued that the commission is supposed to set reasonable rates for electricity. Then he asked the room, "Does anybody feel like everything's reasonably priced?" The audience replied with a resounding "No."
The frustration and anger from the Savannah crowd wasn't surprising, Johnson said. "It's what I've heard since running for office, and so I'm just glad that our other commissioners got to hear some of it, too," she said.
Jason Shaw, a Republican from a south Georgia district and the PSC chair, said the meeting reinforced what he's heard from constituents. In an interview after the meeting, Shaw said transparency has been a core issue with the OpenAI data center in particular, starting at the local level. But he said Georgia Power needs to share more information about its data center contracts, too. "We've got to do a better job of forcing the company to be able to present more to us that's not redacted," he said. "And I think that's something that we're working really closely on."
Some commenters accused the commissioners of failing to represent the public that elected them - and reminded them another election is coming up in November. "If you truly want to be on this board, it's time to step up and protect the people," said Corey Foreman, a candidate running for the state senate from a coastal district. "If you can't do that, I will be more than happy to help remove you."
All five members of the PSC were Republicans from 2006 until the start of this year, when Peter Hubbard and Johnson took office after unseating two Republican incumbents in an election that focused largely on power bills and the commission's recent history of rate increases. The two Democrats have cast dissenting votes several times and closely questioned Georgia Power officials. But both have also been candid that their ability to shift policy on emissions, rates, data centers, and other issues is limited while they are in the minority on the PSC.
The District 3 seat currently held by Hubbard and the District 5 seat recently vacated by Republican Tricia Pridemore are both on the ballot in November. If the Democratic candidates win both seats, the party would hold a majority on the commission for the first time in decades. Hubbard was elected to a one-year term last year and is now facing former Republican commissioner Fitz Johnson in a rematch election for a six-year term. In District 5, Democrat Shelia Edwards is running against Republican Josh Tolbert. While the candidates have to live in their districts, both races are statewide.