BEN BAKER: The real numbers in Georgia Power’s rate hike

Georgia Power is getting a rate hike in January and additional hikes in 2024 and 2025. And there will be even more next year, but we don’t know what those are yet.

This rant is not about the rate hike, but about the media reporting. Every. Single. Report. I read talks about why the rate hike(s) is(are) coming.

What is missing?

How much the rate hike will cost! (I will tell you in a moment, but I need to rant first.)

The reports have plenty of percentages and average bill hikes. Useful information is just not there. By useful I mean:

— If I pay $100 per month in 2022, what is my bill gonna be in January 2023? If the media bothered to tell me that, I could easily figure the rest.

— If you look hard enough, you can find percentages. Good luck finding that information.

— If you find the percentages and you can do math, this is not a real problem. Quick! What is 2.5% of $223.53? (I’m on a flat bill and pay around that each month.) Add the hike to your bill and that gives you the January 2023 bill.

Got that new amount? OK, now figure 4.5% of the new total. Add that to the 2023 total to get the January 2024 bill. Take that bill and find 4.5%. Add that amount to the 2024 bill to get the 2025 bill.

Confusing? Yep.

All the stories focused on what Georgia Power is doing, how much profit it gets to keep before sharing with stockholders, some stuff about solar panels and a bit on the problems with the Vogtle nuclear plant. (That’s a whole ‘nother rant and a truckload of I Told You So.)

Not a lot of surprise in the reporting. I have argued with PR folks at corporations and governments around the nation about their nonsense “news” releases. They spend far too much time using big words and congratulating themselves for whatever action the governing board took.

One PR guy actually told me that is what the upper level management types want to see.

I replied, then you do not care what your customers want to read and want to know. They don’t care about your big words, ouroboros reasoning (see what I did there?) and self-applause. They want to know how this will affect their wallet.

The silence of the reply was deafening.

Anyway, I will not leave you hanging. Here is a quick guide to the rate hike. This uses $100 in 2022 as the base. Each year includes the percent of increase in dollars and cents:

2022 — $100

2023 — $102.80

2024 — $107.43

2025 — $112.26

These increases do not include Georgia Power’s expected rate increase requests next year because of the giant Vogtle financial disaster.

Just guessing here, but in 2025, that $100 bill will be on the order of $150-$175 because of Georgia Power’s mismanagement of the nuclear plant project and the Public Service Commission’s lack of intelligent oversight, which I knew was going to happen.

If y’all want, I’ll go into the problems with the nuclear plant and why so many Georgia Power customers are going to get socked with a bill for electricity they will never use.

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