Groups urge Georgia PSC to determine whether VoltaGrid is violating state energy laws

ATLANTA — Today the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a petition on behalf of Sustainable Newton asking the Georgia Public Service Commission to determine whether VoltaGrid is violating state energy laws at its pop-up power plant in Covington, GA and to halt any unlawful operations.

Houston-based energy company VoltaGrid is building a 90-megawatt methane gas-fired power plant to sell power to neighboring data center, Serverfarm. Based on information from the companies’ air permit applications to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, VoltaGrid and Serverfarm are separately owned and operated businesses, which makes the sale of power from VoltaGrid to Serverfarm a violation of the Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act and the Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act.

The Territorial Act divides the state into service areas and assigns each electric utility its own territory to serve customers in that area. Georgia’s largest customers (like Serverfarm) can shop around for their electricity provider, but they may only choose among certain electric suppliers regulated by the Public Service Commission. VoltaGrid is not a lawful electric supplier. VoltaGrid is also violating the Cogeneration Act because it is flatly prohibited from selling its excess energy to Serverfarm without oversight from the Commission.

While the Territorial Act was originally designed to avoid multiple utilities building overlapping power lines in the same places, the law has been used for decades to limit clean energy providers from coming to Georgia with innovative energy programs that could offer bill relief and support decarbonization goals. 

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division recently issued VoltaGrid a notice of violation and a stop-work order after the groups notified the agency in June that the company had moved forward with construction without a permit. VoltaGrid and Serverfarm are located within three miles of residential neighborhoods, the Newton County drinking water reservoir, and a nature preserve, and have generated significant opposition from local communities.

“VoltaGrid and Serverfarm tried to obscure their full impact on air quality in our community by seeking air permits as two distinct business operations, ignoring foundational tenets of Georgia’s energy laws to do so,” said Maurice Carter, President of Sustainable Newton. “Communities deserve transparency and equal protection when massive industrial projects are proposed in our neighborhoods, and we are relying on Georgia regulators to ensure these laws are fully enforced.”

“As Georgia Power continues to promote Georgia as a data center destination, companies powering those facilities should not receive different treatment than other energy developers,” said Jennifer Whitfield, Senior Attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “This is now the second time VoltaGrid has appeared to sidestep Georgia’s regulatory process. The law should be applied consistently and fairly, because no company is above the law.”