Recapping the 2025 Mayors Summit

 

Mayors and city leaders came together in a spirit of fellowship at the recent 2025 Mayors Summit to discuss common issues impacting their communities. MEAG Power’s President and CEO Jim Fuller, as well as the senior executive team, provided several important updates during the main conference session.

Data Centers

Data centers continue to be a hot topic, given the potential benefits they bring from generating significant tax and energy sales revenue with relatively minimal impact to schools and traffic. However, serving these loads also comes with risk.

Jim Fuller noted that MEAG Power is working carefully to structure a process that will ensure Participants receive the full benefits of the load growth while minimizing the risks of serving large data centers, which include lower than anticipated loads and early termination of service. He offered a couple of quotes that capture the need to proceed with caution:

“There is a significant risk of Southeast utilities overbuilding power plants and pipelines in response to projected data center energy demand. This risk is exacerbated by the uncertainty over whether data center demand will materialize at the levels forecasted.” Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

“The devil is in the details—and there are a lot of details that, if mishandled, could lead to higher residential electric rates that effectively subsidize the largest and richest companies in the world and their customers.” Brookings Institution report: “Boom or Bust: How to Protect Rate Payers from the AI Bubble”

Transmission

Like many utilities across the U.S., MEAG Power plans to increase investments in transmission infrastructure over the next several years. This is partly due to the need to replace aging equipment and partly due to better managing the increase in power demand. (See the aging infrastructure article in this edition of Current.)

In addition to wholly owned MEAG Power assets, we have shared ownership in the Integrated Transmission System (ITS), a 17,800-mile network that flows power across 90% of the state. ITS engineers expect new load growth to exceed 9,000 MW in future years, requiring 2000+ miles of new, rebuilt and upgraded transmission to be constructed in Georgia in the next decade.

New Generation

The Pineview solar project is on track to come online in 2026. The engineering is complete and the solar facility and substation construction is nearing completion, with initial synchronization and test energy scheduled to occur in December.

Also, MEAG Power completed the acquisition of its wholly owned 40-acre site at Plant Wansley on which one or two new generation assets can be built. Site work is underway including clearing and leveling, gas pipeline development and evaluation of joint facilities to be used in conjunction with Georgia Power activities.

Based on our commitment to complete a new Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) every three years, MEAG Power will begin a new IRP process in early 2026. This will involve quantifying future resource needs and optimal supply-side resources, as well as an action plan to implement next steps.

Production Tax Credits

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created the 45U nuclear power production credit, which applies to our generation at Plant Hatch 1 & 2 and Plant Vogtle 1 & 2. The credit is available between 2024 and 2032.

Principal Funding Gap

Our Power Purchase Agreements with JEA and PowerSouth require the offtakers to pay the principal on the debt service during the first 20 years of energy production at Vogtle 3 & 4, which was slated to begin in 2016. MEAG Power will take over the principal payments in 2036.

However, Vogtle Unit 3 didn’t begin operations until 2023, which pushes back MEAG Power’s receipt of the nuclear production to 2043. As such, MEAG Power will be responsible for seven years of principal payments before the Participants in Project J & P begin to receive the output of the units. The good news is that we expect to cover a majority of this gap with 45J advanced nuclear production tax credits and margins from sales to JEA and PowerSouth, plus investment earnings.

Leadership & Adversity

Malcolm Mitchell – former Georgia Bulldog, Super Bowl champion, and author – gave an inspiring talk on overcoming adversity and the importance of providing positive leadership to younger generations. His nonprofit organization, Share the Magic Foundation, encourages children to read and has distributed books to more than 350,000 kids in Georgia and beyond. If you are interested in having Malcolm come to your community, please reach out to your regional manager.

LPPC Conversation

Tom Falcone, President of the Large Public Power Council (LPPC), sat down with Paul Warfel of MEAG Power for a conversation on top issues facing public power utilities. Georgia isn’t alone in trying to manage an influx of data centers, as other municipal systems across the U.S. are grappling with how to meet the projected rise in energy demand.

On Politics

Brian Robinson provided an update on the most recent elections in Georgia, including the Public Service Commission seats, as well as his thoughts on next year’s elections and the upcoming state legislative session. Affordability is a key topic that will drive the next election cycle.