Data Center Site Selection in Georgia: Georgia Power, PSC Rules, Water and Taxes

Atlanta has moved from a secondary market to the front of the construction pipeline. CBRE’s first-half 2026 report put the market’s under-construction capacity at 2,882 MW, up 52.3% from a year earlier, making Atlanta the largest market for total construction in North America for the first time and ahead of Northern Virginia.¹ Inventory stood at about 1,803 MW with only 29.5 MW available, and CBRE attributed the growth to tax incentives, labor and rural development opportunities.¹

Georgia differs from Virginia and Texas in its market structure. It is not in an organized wholesale market, so a vertically integrated utility plans generation and transmission and the elected Public Service Commission sets rates and approves resources. That puts the PSC’s decisions at the center of any power date. Our Southeast guide covers the regional pattern, and regulated utility vs. competitive market sites explains how that structure changes negotiations. For comparison with a PJM state, see Virginia.

Most large Georgia sites are served by Georgia Power, though electric membership cooperatives and municipal systems serve parts of the state, so confirm the utility service territory first. On January 23, 2025, the PSC unanimously approved a rule for Georgia Power’s new customers with loads above 100 MW.² Those customers can be billed under terms beyond the standard tariff to cover the risks they create for other ratepayers.²

• Contract terms can run up to 15 years, compared with the 5-year terms that were common before.⁷
• Minimum billing requirements apply, so the customer pays for capacity built for it even if it uses less or leaves early.⁷
• Beyond site-specific facilities, the customer pays for upstream generation, transmission and distribution costs as its construction progresses.²
• Every new Georgia Power contract with a customer in the 100 MW category must be filed with the PSC for review.²

For site selection, the rule turns a power request into a long financial commitment early in the project. A developer should size the request to a realistic ramp rather than to the full master plan, and expect the PSC review of the contract to be part of the schedule. Our guides to large-load tariffs and electric service agreements and load ramp schedules cover how to structure those requests.

To meet projected needs from 2027–28 through 2030–31, Georgia Power asked the PSC to certify about 9,885 MW of new resources, about two-thirds of it natural gas-fired units and the rest battery storage, alone or paired with renewables.⁸ The PSC approved a stipulated agreement for that capacity by a 5–0 vote on December 19, 2025, with most of the new energy intended for large customers such as data centers.³

The decision included a ratepayer condition: in its next base rate case, Georgia Power must allocate enough of the portfolio’s cost to large-load customers that their incremental revenue puts at least $8.50 a month of downward pressure on a typical residential bill of 1,000 kWh for 2029 through 2031.⁸ PSC staff reported that the prospective large-load pipeline had grown from about 16,000 MW in 2023 to about 69,000 MW in December 2025, with about 80% of it data centers.⁸

A pipeline seven times the size of the approved additions means capacity will be allocated. When you approach the utility, ask which certified resources a project would rely on, when they come online and what happens if the load arrives before them. Our guide on power timelines and interconnection queues discusses how to read those answers.

Large campuses have pushed outward from the city toward counties with big tracts and transmission. Coweta County shows both sides of that move. In April 2026 its commissioners approved the Project Sail rezoning by a 3–2 vote: a nine-building campus of about 4.34 million square feet on 832 acres near Newnan, roughly 45 miles south of Atlanta and near Georgia Power’s Plant Yates, presented as a potential $17 billion investment.¹⁰ The Prologis-backed project could need about 900 MW.¹³ Coweta has also extended a freeze on further data center applications while it weighs competing resident demands.¹¹

Douglas County, west of Atlanta, voted 4–1 for a 90-day moratorium that blocked land use map amendments, rezonings, special use permits, variances and public hearings for data center campuses larger than 50,000 square feet.⁴ Moratoriums like these are usually temporary, but they can stop a project at the worst time: after land is under option and before entitlements. See data center moratoriums and local restrictions.

In every county, check the comprehensive plan, any pending ordinance changes and the record of recent votes before relying on a zoning path. Our guide to zoning for data centers covers the mechanics.

Georgia offers a sales and use tax exemption for qualifying high-technology data centers, and in 2022 it extended that exemption to 2031.⁹ In 2024 the General Assembly passed HB 1192, which would have suspended new exemption certificates from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2026, but Governor Kemp vetoed it on May 7, 2024, citing projects already under way in reliance on the extension.⁹ The exemption has remained in place since, though under steady pressure.¹⁴

The 2026 session tested it again. Lawmakers introduced a wave of bipartisan data center bills, including SB 34, which would bar fuel, generation and transmission costs associated with data centers from general rates.¹⁵ By the end of the session in April 2026, the General Assembly had left the tax breaks intact, even after a state report estimated they would cost about $2.5 billion in revenue in 2026, and the ratepayer bill did not pass.⁵

Metro Atlanta draws heavily on the Chattahoochee River system, and data center water use has become part of local approval debates. Reporting on Georgia projects has cited a Google data center in Douglas County that uses about 305 million gallons a year, and Project Sail’s proposed maximum withdrawal of 9 million gallons a day, of which about 6 million would evaporate and about 3 million would return to the river.⁶ In August 2026, the Atlanta City Council was weighing a rule that would stop data centers on the city’s water system from using drinking water for routine cooling and push them to closed-loop systems through permits issued by the Department of Watershed Management.¹²

For a Georgia site, settle the water source and cooling approach before the rezoning hearing, because neighbors and commissioners will ask. If a parcel depends on a county or city system, confirm treatment and sewer capacity in writing. Consider closed-loop cooling or reclaimed water where the utility can supply it. Our guides to municipal water and sewer capacity and closed-loop and waterless cooling go deeper.

1. 01Identify the serving utility. For Georgia Power loads above 100 MW, plan for long contract terms, minimum bills and PSC review.²⁷
2. 02Ask which certified resources would serve the load and when, given the size of the large-load pipeline.³⁸
3. 03Check the county for moratoriums, freezes and pending ordinance changes before signing an option.¹¹⁴
4. 04Define water supply and cooling early, with withdrawal and return volumes ready for public hearings.⁶
5. 05Model the sales tax exemption through its 2031 horizon, with a case that assumes it changes.⁹⁵
6. 06Confirm fiber routes, transmission access and buildable acreage on the specific tract.

Our methodology describes how we weigh these factors, and you can get a site reviewed before committing to a utility request or a rezoning.