LISTEN: A look at the candidates, the issues and voter turnout in the July 15 Democratic runoff election for a seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission. GPB's Orlando Montoya reports.
Georgia voters have a choice to make next week. But, so far, very few of them are opting to make it.
In early voting this week, the turnout has been exceptionally low in the Democratic runoff election for a seat on the state’s Public Service Commission.
It could end up being less than 1% of active voters.
The two candidates in the race, Peter Hubbard and Keisha Waites, are talking to as many voters as they can, trying to get them to understand just what the statewide elected, five-member commission does.
“This Public Service Commission is the best kept secret in Georgia,” said Hubbard, a clean energy advocate and the founder of the Georgia Center for Energy Solutions. “It is incredibly important. This is the most important election in Georgia this year and will pave the way for how elections will turn out in November of 2026."
The PSC effectively controls the bills for 2.3 million customers of Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility — and those bills have gone up sharply in recent years.
Most published reports say the average Georgia Power customer is now paying more than $175 per month, up $43 from 2022, although Hubbard says the increase is more like $52.
But what if you’re not a Georgia Power customer?
Maybe you get your power from an EMC, one of Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives?
This little-known elected body still controls your rates — and a whole lot more.
“The Georgia Public Service Commission regulates telecommunications, natural gas and even pipeline safety,” said Waites, a former state representative and Atlanta city councilwoman. “The policies that it approves shape Georgia's economy, it shapes our environment, and our long-term energy strategies, which actually impacts everybody.”
Think climate-warming emissions, data centers, solar power and battery development and nuclear power, all of which affect job creation.
The PSC even was involved in a widely reported legal battle over a Georgia railroad’s attempt to seize land by eminent domain from Black landowners in Hancock County.
But winner of the election on Tuesday won’t get to vote on those issues immediately.
Either Hubbard or Waites first will have to face the Republican incumbent, Fitz Johnson, on a general election ballot in November.
Johnson, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022, is facing his first election challenge.
The PSC’s five members are currently all Republicans.
GPB’s Orlando Montoya spoke to both candidates and asked them the same questions about many of the issues.
Peter Hubbard: My background is 15 years of direct energy experience. I've worked at Siemens Energy Business Advisory at AFRY Management Consulting. Siemens was eight years, AFRY two years. And then for the last almost three years now, I've been with a private solar and storage development company called Ecoplexus. And that's where I operationalize and bring to life solar and storage projects. But in addition to that, I've also founded a nonprofit, that was six years ago, called the Georgia Center for Energy Solutions. It's Georgia-ces.org and that's where I've been in the last four Integrated Resource Plans, bringing all of that expertise of putting together power plans for utilities in that career that I just mentioned and bringing that expertise to the IRP process. So that's a broad swath of energy expertise, but it spans 15 years. And it covers the electricity and natural gas market.
Keisha Waites: I served over a decade as a legislator, three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and most recently on the Atlanta city council. The existing PSC, Public Service Commission chair, Jason Shaw, is a former colleague of mine, as well as Bubba McDonald.
Peter Hubbard: We do not have a level of accountability that I think is acceptable at the Public Service Commission. We haven't had accountability in terms of all the rate increases that the incumbent, Johnson, has approved in those four years. And this is the first time that voters have that chance. And I think that those voters deserve a better representative on the commission than what they've been seeing and how they've been served or disserved on this commission. So really what I'm doing is to be a representative for residential customers of Georgia Power Company and really all of Georgia who would like to see lower power bills and a transition to cleaner energy and handing off a better environmental and fiscal future for our children.
Keisha Waites: Over the last couple of years, I think when you look at the trends, there have been six rate hikes in a two-year period of time. And I think, at the end of the day, voters are hurting. They're suffering. Whether you are affluent or you are a working family, you are feeling the pinch and the sting of a lot of the decisions that are being made. The Public Service Commission was charged with being an advocacy and a watch group for consumers and rate payers. However, that function has not happened now in many, many, many, many years. When you think about the $35 billion cost overrun with Plant Votgle, that bill or that tab was passed on to consumers and rate payers. So the reality is that Georgia Power should absorb some of that cost, which is why I support performance-based management. And I believe through that, consumers will get the best buck for the bang. We need an audit. We need to understand how these investments are being made in terms of infrastructural improvements, in terms investing in our grid. Frankly, we need storm weather preparedness. When our power goes down, it's down too long. And so those are some simple investments that we can make that will provide equity and that will pay dividends to consumers and ratepayers.
Peter Hubbard: This race requires not only that deep energy expertise, but it also requires a coalition of people that recognize that we have to do a serious job at the commission. It requires a background in energy and that expertise that only I bring. And what I've been doing is speaking to a broad coalition of people that are now endorsing this campaign and investing in this campaign because they recognize that what we need to really take on this Public Service Commission that's been held under Republican control for so long is someone who has been invested in doing the work and in front of the Commission and understands the ways that the process can be manipulated. And I am that person because I've been doing the work for so long in front the Commission. And so I think that's really what differentiates me is that direct experience before the Public Service Commission in the industry and with the support of a broad coalition of people now.
Keisha Waites: I think it's important that you have someone that has statewide relationships and that is viable. When you look at my campaign and my performance in the primary election, you can see that I performed all over the state of Georgia, in conservative areas as well as Democratic-performing areas. My support base is broad with white voters as well as Black voters. I enjoy a broad base of support from seniors as well as the LGBT community that I believe will be instrumental in being successful in November. I understand how to run a large campaign, garnering 57,000 votes in the primary election and leading that particular race. The analysts all agree that, had we not had the debacle with the disqualification, I would have won that race without a runoff. So I've already demonstrated viability. But I've already shown up for Georgians. When it came to reproductive rights and social justice, I've been on the forefront of those.
Peter Hubbard: I believe there is a significant amount of excess capacity in the grid that we have. And there's a surplus in the return on equity that Georgia Power Company receives. And, and there's number of things that we're doing that are inefficient. And when you gather all of that together, there is way to provide almost instantaneous rate release. And, in fact, the overages are enough, in terms of the rate of return on equity of Georgia Power Company, that if it were adjusted down to the market rate, we could provide roughly 20% bill relief to everyone immediately. Now, that's going to be a difficult thing to accomplish. But the point is that there are ways that we can provide rate relief to those who need it, who have seen these increases. And I believe the rate freeze was our chance to make an argument that there is room for improvement and we're not getting that chance. We were promised at least $2.89 in bill relief in the ‘23 IRP update and now that's been erased. And so there's this cycle of not being able to make that case before the commission. That's really why I'm running for Public Service Commission: Time and again, we're not being heard.
Keisha Waites: I think if I were in that position, I would have approached it with a greater level of transparency, public accountability and long-term consumer protection in mind. And here's what I would've done differently. I would have held full rate case hearings. Instead of passing a traditional rate case process, I would have insisted on full public hearings where voters can weigh in, right? Consumers. These allow consumer advocates, municipalities, and everyday Georgians to scrutinize Georgia Power's financials, which we are not allowed to do. We're allowed to challenge assumptions, especially around projected demand, storms and recovery costs, which is what they said these rate increases were about. Secondly, separate storm recovery base rate. So, the current deal allows Georgia Power to recover $860 million in storm costs from Hurricane Helene, right? This is outside of the freeze. So I would have pushed for transparent, capped recovery mechanisms with strict oversight, ensuring that ratepayers were not blindsided by future bill increases. So even though we have a rate freeze, it's disingenuous. It’s almost like buying an airline ticket, and when you get on a plane, you're going to be billed for your bags, you're going to be billed to use the restroom, you're going be billed for a Coke or a water. And essentially, that's kind of what they are doing, right? So the surprise billing is still an option. And then lastly, I would protect ratepayers against deferred cost surges. Deferring costs now could lead to a massive rate hike in 2028. So I advocate for a phased recovery plan that spreads costs out over a period of time. And this provides safeguards to prevent rates shot down the road.
Peter Hubbard: Distributed energy resources like solar on your rooftop, solar on businesses, especially large flat white roofs, as in the warehouses around Atlanta, those are all extremely sensible ideas. They are a bit more costly than the utility-scale solar. The benefit is that they're local to where the load is, where the people live. You don't have to build the large transmission lines to move that solar power from south to north Georgia. And so, the benefits really outweigh a lot of the costs. The reason why we're not building more of them is because the incentives are completely misaligned. Georgia Power Company customers will pay 21 cents per kilowatt hour for the energy they buy. But if they sell any excess back to the grid, they only get 7.3 cents right now per kilowatt hour. And so, you can't pay back your solar system because the benefits are not flowing to the customers who put them on. Those distributed energy resources have incredible value. We're undervaluing them and that's an important way that we could drive down power bills for customers that's being ignored right now.
Keisha Waites: We cannot run out of sun or wind. So these are constant renewable sources for energy, right? So, we have to move it in the right direction. But, we've got to think about it from this perspective. There's a reason why Georgia Power never, ever talks about the fact that we have a solar buyback plan. They never talk about it. Because Georgia Power has historically favored centralized, utility-owned generation, like gas or nuclear. And this is something that they can profit from. So, distributing solar like rooftop panels, community solar, it shifts power and savings to consumers and it reduces the demand for new power plants, right? Building large-scale solar also competes with fossil fuel investments the utility has already been made. So, there's a less financial incentive for Georgia Power to embrace solar unless the PSC requires it. So again, as I stated, the PSC is an oversight agency. It is our job to mandate certain policies to protect consumers. And right now we don't have that in place.
Peter Hubbard: I completely agree with the public interest advocacy staff at the commission because I've run my own analysis that specifically looks at that question of whether or not we can maintain reliability on our power grid in the absence of coal. And the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ We can retire them on schedule in 2032. I would make that case very forcefully and ask any commissioners who don't agree to please present evidence to support their claim that we need to keep that coal running because there is not a single coal plant in this country that is economic right now. They are all losing money. And it is not a truthful statement to say that we to keep the coal on to maintain a reliable grid. That is factually false.
Keisha Waites: We all know that reliance and fossil fuel dependency is a problem. And so we have to start looking at clean energy. And I love the idea of moving towards solar and sun because that way it's clean, it saves money. Now, there is an initial upfront cost that I'm very clear about. I'm not naive about that. But I also think it's important that we take a look at making sure that customers are getting a great return on their rates and that we are producing clean, affordable energy.
Peter Hubbard: I, in principle, am okay with nuclear. In fact, I’m in favor of nuclear because it is a carbon-free resource. When Vogel units 3 and 4 came online, it pushed a lot of coal and natural gas-fired generation out of the merit order stack. We didn't use them that much. However, the cost overruns are unconscionable. And that lack of oversight regulatory oversight is why we ended up with the most expensive power plant in the world. And absent a strict cost control mechanism that was airtight, zero loopholes — and that's very difficult to construct — then I would not be in favor of repeating that same mistake. And I don't believe in the small modular reactors. Until there's one that is commercially deployed somewhere in North America, I don't think we should be putting our eggs in that basket of small modular reactors. So, while I'm supportive of nuclear, we don't have the management cost control mechanism to make it viable.
Keisha Waites: I don't see nuclear as a bad thing; frankly. I would prefer that over coal. But what I also think is that we need to talk about the demand. The reality is, data centers are coming here to stay. So we don't want to be naive about that. We simply want to make sure that, when it comes to infrastructure and investments in the grid, that we modernize our grid to handle extreme weather. And we do that by investing in battery storage, by investing in microgrids and localized energy sources. And I'll also push for mandatory storm preparedness from utilities. And that will provide faster response standards so that are not left in the dark for many days.
