ATLANTA – Georgia Power would not be allowed to pass on the costs of providing electricity to data centers under legislation before the state Senate.

“I support data centers coming to Georgia. … They can be a significant contributor to property taxes,” Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Friday during an initial hearing on the measure. “But they do require considerable resources. I want them to pay their fair share of those investments.”

The rapid growth of the data center industry in Georgia has prompted concerns among state lawmakers and energy regulators during the last couple of years. When Georgia Power executives asked the state Public Service Commission (PSC) in 2023 to approve 6,600 megawatts of additional electrical generating capacity for the Atlanta-based utility, they said 80% of that new demand was coming from energy-intensive data centers.

The commission voted last month to prohibit Georgia Power from passing on the costs of providing electricity to large-load customers including data centers to residential and small-business customers. The new rule also requires contracts with customers using more than 200 megawatts of electricity to be submitted to the PSC for review.

Khara Boender, senior manager of state policy for the Virginia-based Data Center Coalition, an industry association, said she considers Senate Bill 34 unnecessary because the PSC already has acted on the issue. Boender also complained that Hufstetler’s bill unfairly singles out data centers when there are other large users of electricity in Georgia, including the fast-growing advanced manufacturing sector.

But Hufstetler said legislation is needed to ensure Georgia Power’s residential and small-business customers don’t end up footing the bill for power-hungry data centers.

“This is just too huge an issue for us not to make sure we’re taking care of the citizens,” he said. “We need to protect the citizens of Georgia.”

The committee didn’t act on Hufstetler’s bill Friday. A vote could come at the panel’s next meeting.