In 2022, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved a rate increase for Georgia Power Company that will cause customers’ bills to go up nearly 12% over the next three years to pay for spending on grid infrastructure, coal ash cleanup, retiring coal plants ahead of schedule, and the Company’s significant profits on these expenditures. Not included yet in these rate hikes are capital costs to build Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4. Construction of the units is now more than six years behind schedule at more than double the original cost. Securitization is a low-cost capital option for investor-owned utilities like Georgia Power to replace higher-cost capital financing. It uses bond financing to lower costs for utility customers, saving customers hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run.
