MACON, Ga. — Georgia's Public Service Commission is set to vote on whether you'll see a bigger electric bill starting in 2023 on Tuesday.
This is after Georgia Power and state regulator staff compromised on a settlement agreement last week, allowing Georgia Power to raise the rate for its customers to $1.8 billion dollars over the next three years.
If you're a Georgia Power customer, this is what you'll be looking at if this rate is approved Tuesday. Beginning in 2023, the average rate payer will be paying $3.60 more a month-- a 2.5 percent increase.
In 2024 and 2025, your bill could go up 4.5 percent each year. By 2025, you'll be paying more than $16 a month more than in 2022.
So, what's driving the costs? We spoke to Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols and also Patty Durand who ran for the commission this year.
"The commissioners are trying to make a decision that's going to work for ratepayers. For the utility for the grid for everything moving forward, including some things about solar and electric vehicles. This is an extremely complicated settlement," Echols said.
Tuesday's vote will cost Georgia Power customers for the next three years.
The last time the commission voted on a hike was in 2019. Georgia Power is able to ask for a rate adjustment every three years.
"Tomorrow's vote will trigger a rate increase that's way overdue," Echols said. "Two years ago, during the pandemic, you may have been paying a fortune for furniture or used cars up by 51%. You weren't paying any more for energy then because we set the rate based on the calendar."
Echols says two factors behind the rate hike are inflation and the cost of natural gas that's increased largely because the War in Ukraine.
The PSC commissioner says another factor is construction at Plant Vogtle.
"Eventually, it'll be the cheapest energy that we have in Georgia and it's cost a lot to build it, but it is the latest technology," Echols said.
The project is billions over budget and behind schedule on finishing two nuclear reactors.
In 2012, the estimated cost of the project was roughly $14 billion. The cost now is $34 billion. The company originally working on Plant Vogtle went bankrupt.
Georgia Power and its partners decided to go ahead with the project with a different company and a higher price tag.
Patty Durand, who ran for public service commission this year, says the project is the main reason customers will pay more-- not inflation or natural gas prices.
"Georgia ratepayers are on the hook for federal levels of money. You know, $34 billion is federal spending. It's outrageous that that is what one state is paying for one power plant," Durand said.
The $1.8 billion rate hike is much less than the $2.9 billion Georgia Power originally proposed. The rate the commission is voting on Tuesday is still three times more than what commission staff originally recommended.
"So the question that I have and I think everyone should have is, why is Georgia Power asking for so much money every three years to the tune of billions of dollars?," Durand said. "It should be the commission telling the monopoly utility what they will do instead of having a negotiation like it's some kind of a power struggle."
The commission is scheduled to vote at 9:25 a.m. Tuesday at their headquarters in Atlanta, according to Echols.