Georgia Power Files 2025 IRP Plan to Meet Energy Needs

Georgia Power today filed its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which details the company’s plan to meet the energy needs of customers and support the state’s expected continued extraordinary growth. In the IRP, the company has proposed necessary investments in its generation fleet and transmission system to help ensure Georgia Power can continue to provide its customers with the reliability and resiliency they deserve and expect, as well as demand-side and customer programs.

Today’s filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) builds on the foundation of previous IRPs and the recent 2023 IRP Update, which was approved by the Georgia PSC in April 2024 (read more here). Georgia Power continues to see positive economic development trends, in the short and long term, with many of the businesses coming to the state bringing large electrical demands. Over the next six years, Georgia Power projects approximately 8,200 megawatts (MW) of electrical load growth – an increase of more than 2,200 MW in peak demand by the end of 2030 when compared to projections in the 2023 IRP Update.

“At Georgia Power, our vision extends far beyond today — we plan for tomorrow, the next ten years and decades to come,” said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. “As Georgia continues to grow, this state is well-positioned for the future thanks to proactive planning, policies, and processes like the Integrated Resource Plan. The 2025 IRP provides a comprehensive plan to support Georgia’s continued economic growth and serve Georgians with clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy well into the future.”

Expansion of a Diverse Energy Mix

Throughout its more than 140-year history, Georgia Power has built, maintained and improved power plants across the state to reliably serve customers and a growing Georgia. The company’s diverse generation mix has evolved to include cleaner and more efficient forms of energy generation as technology has advanced and, as part of the Southern Company system, Georgia Power continues to be an industry leader in the research and development of emerging energy technologies.

With the 2025 IRP, Georgia Power proposes continued investments in existing power plants already in operation today to serve the needs of a growing Georgia more economically and with increased efficiency.

Proposed economical extensions and enhancements to existing generating units include:

• Extended power uprates to reliable, emission-free units at Plants Hatch and Vogtle. With the completion of Units 3 & 4 at Plant Vogtle, Georgia is now home to the largest generator of clean energy in the U.S., and Georgia Power continues to recognize the importance of additional nuclear capacity for Georgia’s energy future. In this IRP, the company has proposed additional investment in Hatch Units 1 & 2 and Vogtle Units 1 & 2 to enable those units to deliver an additional 112 MW of carbon-free energy to Georgia Power customers.

• Extensions and upgrades to existing power plants. The company’s integration of cleaner natural gas – which has helped reduce overall carbon emissions by more than 60% since 2007 – into its fleet continues in the 2025 IRP, with additional upgrades planned for Plant McIntosh near Savannah that would add an additional 268 MW of capacity. The company has also proposed extended operation of certain coal and natural gas units through at least 2034, with additional upgrades and compliance activities planned at multiple facilities. This effort includes the continued operation of coal-fired units at Plants Bowen and Scherer, which have served Georgia Power customers reliably for decades with approximately 4,000 MW of electricity. The units are among the most advanced coal-fired units in the world and, over time, have added and now operate state-of-the-art technology to reduce the environmental footprint of those facilities, including scrubbers, selective catalytic reduction systems and baghouses. These advancements have resulted in reductions in main air emissions by more than 95% over the past few decades. 

• Continued investment to modernize and operate Georgia’s hydro fleet. Georgia Power’s fleet of hydroelectric generating units is another source of emission-free energy, with some units serving the state of Georgia for more than 100 years. The 2025 IRP continues the company’s efforts to modernize its hydro fleet with new projects for 9 existing hydro plants including critical replacements and refurbishments needed for turbines, generators and other equipment. These units have not been previously approved for modernization and these efforts are expected to allow them to operate for at least another 40 years while improving the efficiency and integrity of the hydro fleet and preserving valuable, dispatchable carbon-free resources for the long-term benefit of customers.

Growing Renewable Energy

In its filing, Georgia Power also continues to demonstrate the importance of economical new energy procurements through competitive RFP processes, which help maintain flexibility amid changing market conditions and enable the company to continue to bring more renewable energy to customers. The company’s long-term plan highlights the procurement of a total of 4,000 MW of renewable resources by 2035, with at least 1,100 MW of new renewable resources proposed in this IRP. These new resources would expand the company’s renewable resource portfolio to approximately 11,000 MW by 2035.

Procurement of energy from new battery energy storage (BESS) projects is also expected to be a part of all-source capacity RFPs, building on the company’s current plans to add more than 1,500 MW of BESS in the coming years (read more).

Enhancing the Power Grid to Increase Reliability and Resiliency

Georgians continue to benefit from a more reliable and resilient power grid, thanks in large part to strategic investments Georgia Power has made over the last decade. In recent years, the company has provided exceptional reliability with fewer and shorter power interruptions (read more), and the state’s growing “smart grid” is showing value for customers by reducing service impacts of severe weather from events like Hurricane Helene and Winter Storm Cora.

A large factor in maintaining reliable electric service every day, as well as during severe weather events, is Georgia Power’s continued investment in the state’s integrated transmission system. The transmission system moves high-voltage energy from generation plants to local distribution power lines to serve customers.  

The 2025 IRP includes Georgia Power’s 10-year transmission plan, which identifies the transmission improvements needed to maintain a strong and reliable transmission system to move energy from new and existing power plants to customers across the state. The company’s 10-year plan proposes new transmission resources across more than 1,000 miles of transmission lines, improving the system’s efficiency and resiliency, and providing the energy infrastructure needed for a growing state. Additionally, the company has proposed a variety of economic and innovative solutions, including new grid enhancing technologies to help meet increasing grid capacity needs and enable further reliable integration of the state’s growing amount of solar generation and BESS. 

Diverse, Customer-Focused Programs

In addition to investments in its transmission and generation systems and assets, Georgia Power recognizes how important demand-side resources, such as energy efficiency programs and demand response programs, are to its resource mix and customers’ overall experience. Georgia Power’s portfolio of customer programs is continually evolving to offer innovative options that help customers meet their sustainability and resiliency goals, as well as enhance energy efficiency and provide customers with more control over their energy usage.  

“The changing needs of our customers – and how they use energy every day in their homes and businesses – are at the center of every decision we make,” added Greene. “We work with customers every day to help them find solutions that work for them, and we know that every kilowatt we can help them save matters. Through the IRP process, we not only consider how we make and move electricity, but also how to leverage the latest customer insights to develop programs that help our customers meet their unique needs and use energy more efficiently.”  

In the 2025 IRP, Georgia Power seeks to continue to advance and innovate its program designs, while maintaining focus on enhanced system reliability and affordability for all customers. Highlights include:  

• Solutions to meet increasing customer demand for emission-free, sustainable, and resilient energy including a new solar plus storage program for residential and small commercial customers; a new distributed energy resource (DER)-enabled demand response program aimed at meeting the capacity and resiliency needs of large customers; and expanding existing customer subscription programs to facilitate the addition of more renewable resources available for customer subscriptions.   

• Increased initiatives for income-qualified customers. The 2025 IRP includes a focus on demand side management offerings specifically for income-qualified customers. The company proposes to continue and expand successful programs including Energy Assistance for Savings and Efficiency (EASE) and HopeWorks, among other adjustments to various customer programs.  

To learn more about how Georgia Power is meeting the needs of customers through a diverse, balanced energy portfolio, and the IRP process, visit  www.GeorgiaPower.com.