Georgia Power is getting ready to do something that—at least on paper—puts more of the clean-energy burden on the companies themselves.
The utility is launching a new Customer-Identified Resource program that lets businesses propose and fund their own clean energy projects, rather than waiting for ideas to come strictly through the usual utility procurement process. The program passed with bipartisan support from the state’s public service commissioners on April 7, and is expected to open by this summer. One day, in a fluorescent-lit office somewhere, someone will likely hear the hum of a printer and realize a proposal is finally allowed to move from a spreadsheet to the grid.
Misryoum newsroom reported that the basic problem behind the change is familiar: many corporations have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but when it comes to energy generation, they’ve struggled to meet those goals because power has to come from the grid. Utilities and regulators largely determine how electricity gets produced, and most still rely on fossil fuel sources like coal and natural gas alongside renewable energy.
So Georgia Power is trying to shift the entry point. Misryoum analysis indicates the Customer-Identified Resource program aims to create a mechanism for customers to bring projects forward that Georgia Power customers otherwise couldn’t. Priya Barua, a senior director of Utility Partnerships and Innovation at the Corporate Energy Buyers Association, or CEBA, helped work on the initiative with the utility and other stakeholders. “It provides an opportunity for the first time for these customers to be able to identify and bring projects to Georgia Power,” Barua said.
Companies that have emissions-reduction targets are often interested in building their own clean energy projects to support those goals. Misryoum newsroom reported that Meta, for instance, has built solar fields in Georgia to help power its data center complex in Social Circle—though the complex gets additional electricity from an electric membership cooperative, not Georgia Power. Before this new program, there hasn’t been a mechanism for Georgia Power customers to bring similar projects to that utility’s grid. Even when customers tried to solve the issue with offset-style workarounds—Hyundai, for example, purchased renewable energy credits from solar fields in Texas to offset the energy use at its plant near Savannah—those solutions weren’t the same as building generation that could actually feed into the Georgia Power system.
Under the new program, companies will be able to build clean energy projects within the state. They can opt to fund clean energy projects that don’t get chosen during the utility’s regular bid process, or develop their own. Barua added that the program also supports collaboration: “The program allows multiple customers to be able to bring forward a project together, which really opens this program up to a broader range of small and medium sized commercial and industrial customers.”
Supporters say the initiative could become a template for other utilities. Georgia already ranks eighth in the country for solar energy capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, but proponents of renewable energy have long argued the state could be adding more solar more quickly. Misryoum newsroom reported that those arguments have grown louder in recent years as Georgia Power has requested and received approval for large amounts of new energy generation to serve growing demand—especially demand the utility expects to see, mostly from data centers. Georgia Power is planning to generate most of that new energy from natural gas, and environmental and consumer advocates have argued that some or all of that demand can be met with renewables and efficiency programs instead.
Barua said the Customer-Identified Resource program could help cover the new demand Georgia Power is predicting. “It just accelerates the clean energy projects coming to the system, which would then negate the need for natural gas and other types of generation resources down the road,” she said. If it works the way supporters hope, the bottleneck won’t just be policy pledges—it’ll be project pipelines, and whether enough customers decide to step in.
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