Arthur Toal aimed to make a point, and it all centered on roughly 20 grains of rice.
At a meeting Tuesday evening between his Atlanta neighborhood and Georgia Power, he lifted a small vial of rice to represent his home’s electricity use. Then he reached for progressively larger jars of rice to symbolize larger power users — the entire capacity of his Howell Station neighborhood, the nearby Fulton County Jail, the world’s busiest airport and so on.
“I don’t have any more comparisons,” he said while covering a table with rice-filled jars. “And that is QTS.”
QTS Data Centers operates the largest computer server farm in the city, a four-building campus off Jefferson Street in the Howell Station neighborhood 3 miles northwest of downtown. It is advertised to have 278 megawatts of storage space for its clients, which is what Toal’s rice comparison was trying to visualize.
He and more than 100 of his neighbors were railing against Georgia Power‘s plan to erect new transmission lines along their residential streets to connect a substation on QTS property to the utility’s broader grid. It’s the latest flashpoint to emerge in metro Atlanta as data centers flock to the region in unprecedented numbers, catching some communities off guard.
Misty Fernandez, Atlanta regional executive at Georgia Power, was adamant the substation and transmission lines are not for one customer and will improve grid resiliency across west Atlanta.
“This transmission line is an investment in our power grid that benefits the entire west metro region,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the meeting. “It does not serve a single customer. It serves thousands of customers. … Georgia Power does not have a substation that serves a single customer.”
Neighbors, including Toal, have their doubts, pointing to how QTS was advertising in its website “its own on-site Georgia Power substations.” A QTS representative declined to comment about the transmission line controversy.
“QTS is advertising these substations as for them,” Toal said after the meeting. “Meanwhile, Georgia Power is saying, ‘No, it’s not.’”
‘Involve the community’
Georgia Power, a for-profit subsidiary of Southern Co., is required to supply electricity to its customers.
As customer needs increase, Georgia Power must expand its generation and infrastructure to meet those needs, while submitting to the regulation of the Public Service Commission. The utility does not reveal the power usage of individual customers nor the cost of its projects and evaluated alternatives.
The Jefferson Street-Northwest Transmission Line project includes two new high-voltage lines connecting two substations in the area. Howell Station residents learned of the project as trees started to come down, since Georgia Power had already obtained most of its entitlements for the transmission project.
The tree cutting prompted the Howell Station Neighborhood Association to coordinate meetings with Georgia Power, including the one Tuesday.
Council member Byron Amos said he was disappointed Georgia Power didn’t include neighbors before the project was effectively finalized.
“They say that it’s impossible or just not their thing to involve the community when it comes to projects,” he said. “I think that’s one of the first things they need to do.”
Breaking a buffer
Fernandez said the route is “the least impactful” option and avoids Georgia Power having to acquire additional property or disrupt the nearby Beltline trail.
Using land owned by Fulton County and QTS, Georgia Power plans to clear a large portion of trees along the buffer between Howell Station homes and the nearby Fulton County jail as part of the 12-pole transmission line installation.
“We do not design our routes through public input,” she said. “We design our routes through state law criteria that balances … safety, existing corridors, environmental considerations, engineering practices and cost impacts to customers.”
One of the common complaints from neighbors was how the neighborhood would be less insulated from the jail, a troubled facility that’s been the focus of federal investigations over its conditions.
Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ashley and Mike Meyer, who live on a street next to the jail’s tree buffer, voiced concerns that released inmates will more easily be able to cut through their area to get to nearby bus stops.
“I lay in bed at night and hear people who have just been released from the jail, walking down the street,” Ashley Meyer said. “And I think to myself, ‘Thank goodness there’s barriers.’”
Fernandez said Georgia Power will collect feedback through the Howell Station Neighborhood Association to see if there are vegetation or barrier options to improve the jail buffer.
For many residents, the new infrastructure for the area’s power grid doesn’t outweigh the fears the transmission lines will harm their neighborhood, property values and sense of safety.
“This is our new front yard,” Mike Meyer said. “Pole five and the jail.”
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