Georgia Power builds four new battery storage facilities. One’s in Bibb County.

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Georgia Power hosted company and project leaders, as well as state and local elected officials, for a groundbreaking ceremony at the BESS location in Floyd County on April 18, 2025.

Credit: Georgia Power

Construction is underway at four new battery energy storage system sites located across Georgia, including one in Bibb County, totaling 765 megawatts of power, Georgia Power announced Wednesday in a news release.

The 128 megawatt BESS site in Bibb County follows the state’s first ever BESS site near Columbus, which entered service in 2024. The construction of the Bibb County site is accompanied by three other BESS projects in Lowndes, Floyd and Cherokee counties.

“BESS projects support the overall reliability and resilience of the electric system, while also enhancing the value of intermittent renewable generation resources such as solar,” Georgia Power said in a release. “Storage systems can improve the efficiency of renewable energy by storing excess energy produced during periods when the demand for electricity is lower, for use when the demand is higher, such as on cold winter mornings.

“Because battery storage can provide stored energy to the grid for hours on demand, BESS resources enhance the overall reliability of the electric system.”

The site in Bibb County is being built next to the solar facility by Robins Air Force Base, allowing Georgia Power to leverage existing infrastructure while removing the need to build new transmission stations, saving money and time associated with transmission interconnection and network upgrades, according to the release.

This project is being engineered and constructed by Burns & McDonnell and is expected to be in commercial operation in June of 2026, the release said.

The BESS projects were approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission through the Integrated Resource Plan process and provide “quickly dispatchable” capacity for customers, according to the release.

“At Georgia Power, we work with the Georgia PSC and many other stakeholders to make the investments required for a reliable and resilient power grid, integrating new technologies to better serve our customers today and as Georgia grows,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president and senior production officer for Georgia Power. “As we expand our diverse energy mix to include more renewable energy, which requires careful advance planning and flexibility to accommodate times when that source is not available, these batteries will be an invaluable part of the electric system.”

The power company is working to add more battery storage projects across Georgia with the approval of the state energy regulators.

Georgia Power plans to add 1,000 megawatts more of new battery storage across Georgia in the coming years, according to the release. All-source capacity requests for proposals in the 2025 and 2022 Integrated Resource Plans are expected to include BESS too, the release said.

Georgia Power said it’s committed to helping customers add their own solar panels and batteries to meet Georgia’s growing energy needs.

“Georgia Power is also committed to supporting customer-sited generation resources to meet the state’s growing energy needs,” the release reads. “The 2025 IRP includes two customer expansions of BESS programs including enhancements to the Customer Connected Solar Program and launching a new Customer-Sited Solar Plus Storage Pilot.”

The Customer-Connected Solar Program is a 25 megawatt distributed generation program that allows Georgia Power customers to build a solar facility through partnering with a solar developer on or adjacent to your property, according to Georgia Power’s website. The power company will purchase the energy generated and retire the Renewable Energy Credits, enabling customers to claim the renewable benefits of the local solar energy.

“The Customer-Connected Solar Program is accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis until the entire 25 MW portfolio is fulfilled,” the website reads.

The new Customer-Sited Solar Plus Storage Pilot plans to add 50 MW of solar and battery storage by giving homeowners and small businesses the chance to install on-site solar panels with batteries, making it easier for customers to generate and store their own renewable energy.

“The goal is to encourage more customer-sited renewable generation by pairing dispatchable BESS with behind-the-meter solar systems,” the release said.

Georgia Power serves 2.8 million customers in all but four of the state’s 159 counties.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Macon Telegraph.