Georgia PSC Extends Review of Georgia Power's OpenAI Contract

Georgia’s Public Service Commission has pushed back its deadline to review Georgia Power’s contract to supply OpenAI’s 3.2 gigawatt Effingham County data center, giving staff until August 26 to keep negotiating with the utility before the filing clears by default. Georgia Power filed the roughly 100 page, unsigned contract on July 15, and the two sides then agreed to reset the official filing date to July 27 for review purposes. PSC staff has signaled it will object unless Georgia Power agrees to changes. For developers chasing AI adjacent projects, the holdup is the story: land and zoning are not what is gating this build, a regulator’s signature is.

Why it matters

Georgia’s rule, in force since February 2025, requires any contract with a data-center customer of 100 MW or more to sit with PSC staff for 30 days before Georgia Power can sign it. Silence counts as approval, and an objection restarts the clock. That mechanism, not the Effingham County site itself, is what currently stands between OpenAI and power; the site sits inside the already-industrial-zoned Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub. Developers evaluating AI-adjacent sites in regulated states should read this extension as confirmation that state utility commissions, not local planning boards, now hold the pacing lever on hyperscale power delivery.

The numbers

The contract, known as Project Camellia, covers 3.2 gigawatts of capacity delivered in phases from 2028 through 2032, under a 25-year term. OpenAI is paying the full infrastructure and electric service costs itself, and has committed up to 1,000 megawatts of flexible, demand-response capacity that Georgia Power can call on during peak periods. The project represents at least $20 billion in investment. Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company.

What’s next

PSC staff has until August 26 to file objections or let the contract take effect by default, and Georgia Power has said it agreed to certain changes staff requested. The same power-first gating logic is already reshaping national site selection elsewhere: six Florida counties and cities have passed data-center moratoria since June, and Texas froze new grid interconnections in August pending an audit. Watch whether Georgia’s PSC lets this contract stand as filed, or forces renegotiation, as the template other state regulators copy next.