Recent public hearings about the proposed expansion of White Oak Park came up during the Economic Development Authority of Columbia County’s (EDACC) monthly meeting, Wednesday, morning.
Concerns about the prospective development of data centers at the industrial park proved salient during the town halls hosted by Columbia County Commissioners Alison Couch and Michael Carraway on Aug. 21, and Couch with Commissioner Connie Melear, who was present at Monday’s meeting, on Aug. 25.
EDACC Chairman Rick Evans told his fellow board members that he wanted to make sure the board understood its process for informing the public about the expansion, an initiative that included launching the website about the technology park.
He ultimately urged the board to “stay the course” as EDACC gathered all the relevant information to respond to growing inquiries.
Board member Kerry Bridges, an executive with Georgia Power, reiterated points he made during the later town hall about three “really important” actions made by the Public Service Commission (PCS) in January of this year.
Firstly, Bridges explained, Georgia Power was allowed to collect all infrastructure costs to support large load customers up front. Secondly, Georgia Power may have contracts for up to 15 years with minimum bills to cover the cost of maintenance and infrastructure it’s required to build.
“They’re the ones creating the cost. They’re the ones who are going to pay for that maintenance,” said Bridges.
Thirdly, the power company may collect collateral from these large load customers. Should there be any adverse circumstances, Bridges went on to say, such as if a given project not materialize or the parent company goes bankrupt, all 2.8 million Georgia Power rate payers would be “made whole” for that project or development.
“So we take that direction from the Public Service Commission, and created a process to analyze these large load customers coming onto the system and planning for them,” he said.
Every three years, Georgia Power begins its 18-month process to update its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which was approved by the PCS in July, examining forecasts of the state’s generation needs.
“We’re going to add somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 megawatts of generation across Georgia to support Georgia’s growth,” Bridges said. “We’re also going to add about 1000 miles of transmission to move energy across the state and increase reliability, reliability and resilience of our system. So those are really important concepts, and all of that is publicly available information.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
