Care about your Georgia Power bill? These PSC races could have a big impact.
Races for seats on the Public Service Commission — the state’s top utility regulator — have historically been an afterthought for most voters, despite the power they wield over many Georgians’ electricity bills.
That changed last year.
After a series of rate increases approved in recent years by the all-Republican commission dramatically raised Georgia Power customers’ bills, Democratic challengers ran campaigns laser-focused on the ballooning monthly payments.
The result? Republican incumbents were trounced in the off-year elections, making national news and delivering Democrats their first two PSC election wins since 2000.
This election, two of the PSC’s five seats are once again up for grabs.
The District 3 (Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties) and District 5 (portions of northwest and west-central Georgia, including parts of western metro Atlanta) races will decide if Republicans cling to their narrow, 3-to-2 edge, or if Democrats claim a majority.
The commissioners will serve six-year terms, helping decide how much Georgia Power customers pay for electricity for years to come, as well as how the utility generates the electrons themselves.
Candidates in each race must live within their district boundaries, but voters statewide get to cast their ballots for both races, regardless of where they live.
District 3
Democrat
Peter Hubbard (incumbent)
Peter Hubbard is a clean energy advocate who lives in Atlanta. He was elected to the PSC last November, ousting Republican Fitz Johnson. Before that, he was a developer of solar and other renewable energy projects.
Hubbard said many other states are facing the same issues as Georgia, particularly when it comes to data centers, power grid expansion and rising power bills. He said he wants to look at how other states are handling these issues and apply those lessons here.
Hubbard said he wants to balance a reliable and resilient power grid while keeping rates steady. He added there is a way to invest money into the grid efficiently to prevent bills from skyrocketing.
“That’s not something that’s going to be solved overnight,” he said.
Republicans
Fitz Johnson
Not even six months ago, Fitz Johnson, an Army veteran and entrepreneur, was on the PSC — he was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021. But a loss to Hubbard brought his four-plus-year stint on the commission to a close.
Now, Johnson wants to reclaim his seat.
The Republican voted for many of the rate increases that have pushed Georgia Power residential customers’ bills up since 2023. In an interview, Johnson said he “feels for” customers paying higher bills, but said he has no regrets from his time on the PSC and is proud of what he accomplished.
He touted the three-year freeze of Georgia Power’s base rates he and his fellow Republican commissioners approved last summer, months before the election, and added that he won’t raise rates again if he returns to the PSC. And although critics disagree, Johnson said he believes the data center contracting rules he voted for will protect residential customers from being saddled with even higher bills.
“We’re getting a better grid, a stronger grid, paid for by ‘large load’ customers — not paid for by small business or residential customers,” Johnson said.
Brandon Martin
Johnson’s opponent in the Republican primary, Brandon Martin, is not as well known.
According to his campaign website, Martin is a South Carolina native who moved to the Peach State to attend Georgia Tech. A father of four, Martin was the first member of his family to attend college and has worked as a purchasing manager in a multibillion-dollar industry, his website states.
Martin could not immediately be reached for an interview, but his campaign website emphasizes a focus on jobs. If elected, Martin’s says he wants to “make sure that Georgia has one of the strongest and most prosperous economies in the country.”
He says he also will urge utilities to launch training programs for new workers, ensure they maintain a reliable grid, and push for a diverse, domestic energy mix.
District 5
Democrats
Craig Cupid
The son of immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago, Craig Cupid grew up in a working-class family near Augusta. He said he understands the struggles facing many Georgians because of his upbringing, and felt obligated to “step up” and run for the PSC.
Cupid’s career includes a stint as an engineer but most recently, he was an intellectual property attorney and partner at the firm BakerHostetler focused on artificial intelligence, telecommunications, electric vehicles and more. That experience, Cupid said, means he can “read the fine print” and ensure PSC decisions will benefit residential customers.
“I can read the utility’s technical proposals and know when they’re choosing the most expensive option to maximize their profits,” he said.
If elected, Cupid said he’d also work to claw back Georgia Power’s massive, data center-driven expansion that the PSC recently greenlit.
Shelia Edwards
If you think you recognize Shelia Edwards’ name from a past PSC ballot, you’d be right.
Edwards won the District 3 Democratic primary outright back in 2022, but the general election that fall was postponed because of a legal challenge to Georgia’s statewide elections for PSC seats. Now Edwards, a veteran of Atlanta city government and Democratic politics, is back.
Edwards said she’s running again to “protect people’s pocketbooks and make sure they don’t have to decide between keeping a roof over their heads and paying these astronomical bills.”
If elected, Edwards says she also will push Georgia Power to add more clean energy to its system and expand its residential solar program offerings, plus protect communities from data centers.
Angelia Pressley
Before 2023, business owner and Clark Atlanta University professor Angelia Pressley admits she didn’t pay much attention to the PSC. Once she started tuning in, however, Pressley said she “couldn’t look away.”
“I was really disappointed in what I saw in terms of the treatment of ratepayers asking for relief and asking for some accountability,” she said.
Pressley said more accountability for working Georgians is badly needed at the commission, and she promised to bring more of it, if elected. Her other priorities include pushing Georgia Power to boost its energy assistance programs, advocating for renewables and shielding Georgians from the data center onslaught.
“I’ll do my best to operate at the highest level of integrity,” Pressley said.
Republicans
Bobby Mehan
Mehan is a third-generation Georgian who lives in Bremen. He is a mediator and runs an alternative-dispute resolution firm that handles a wide range of civil cases. He credits growing up with a family dedicated to volunteerism and public service as a motivator to run for the PSC.
Mehan said his top priorities are having affordable power bills and a reliable grid, and he believes Georgia can have both amid an influx of data centers.
He said he wants to find ways to put more electricity on the power grid to serve data centers without driving up residents’ power bills. That can be done by a combination of innovation and bringing companies that don’t traditionally do business before the PSC into the discussion, he added.
“There’s a lot of economic impact these technologies can bring to the table if leveraged appropriately,” he said.
Carolyn Roddy
Carolyn Roddy is a lawyer who lives in Marietta. She has worked on telecommunications issues, including rural broadband and wireless for the Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies.
Roddy’s focus is on affordable power bills and protecting customers. She wants big technology companies that operate data centers to generate their own electricity, eliminating the need for Georgia Power to charge non-data center customers for any grid expansion.
She said she will not “rubber stamp anything,” and that utilities have the financial strength to take on more risk instead of sticking customers with consecutive rate increases.
“We’re a very wealthy country. We’ve got to protect the people that are not in a financial position to protect themselves,” she said.
Joshua Tolbert
Joshua Tolbert is an engineer who lives in Smyrna. He runs his own engineering consulting firm and has spent his career researching, designing and developing nuclear, fossil fuel and clean energy power plants.
Tolbert said the PSC is a technical job, and it’s time to have an engineer on the panel. His chief concern is whether Georgia Power is overbuilding its power grid to serve data centers. He also wants the PSC to have more accountability when it makes decisions, and they should be able to explain their votes to the public.
“If you cannot articulate how you made the decisions, you probably don’t know how you made the decision,” he said.
Tolbert has been an expert witness and said, if elected, he will ask technical questions of people who are testifying before the PSC.
About the Authors
Drew Kann is a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering climate change and environmental issues. His passion is for stories that capture how humans are responding to a changing environment. He is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia and Northwestern University, and prior to joining the AJC, he held various roles at CNN.
Kristi Swartz is an AJC contributing writer covering climate change and related matters. She writes about how climate change impacts people’s lives, from extreme weather hitting parts of the state more frequently, to higher electricity bills, insurance premiums and health care expenses.
