GEORGIA'S COAL SUPPLY IS
PRESERVED ON A
REGULATORY PREMISE.
Under cross examination before the Georgia Public Service Commission, Georgia Power's own witness confirmed the utility anticipates 9.4 gigawatts of load growth by the winter of 2034 to 2035. Georgia Power told regulators that data centers are driving a significant majority of that peak load growth. On July 15, 2025 the Commission approved extended operation of certain coal and natural gas units through at least 2034. The supply is preserved on paper. The premise underneath is the federal emissions rule cycle. The premise can change.
9.4 gigawatts of load growth. Two plant extensions.
Georgia is where data-center demand surfaced as a structural driver of coal preservation. It is the clearest documented case where coal retirements were reversed not because of safety, cost, or compliance, but because of new industrial-scale electricity demand. The 2025 Integrated Resource Plan documents the demand. The plant-specific extensions follow from it. The regulatory dependency holds the picture together.
Data-center demand named in the filing.
Georgia Power filed its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan on January 31, 2025, projecting approximately 8,200 megawatts of load growth over the following six years. On March 26, 2025, under cross examination in Georgia PSC Docket 56002, Georgia Power witness Francisco Valle was asked whether the plan anticipated 9.4 gigawatts by the winter of 2034 to 2035. His answer, on the record at page 636 of the transcript, was "By the winter of '34, '35." The number anchors the entire Georgia picture. It is the reason Plant Bowen and Plant Scherer Unit 3 remain in service.
The driver is industrial-scale electricity load. In the same docket, Georgia Power told the Commission that data centers are driving a significant majority of peak load growth in the company's filed forecast. The specific percentage was filed under seal and redacted from the public transcript, so no share figure is published here. The direction is on the record. The magnitude is not.
Plant Bowen. Plant Scherer Unit 3. Same regulatory premise.
The 2025 IRP extended two coal plants. Both extensions are conditioned on the same federal regulatory posture. The Commission also approved natural gas co-firing at both. No company or commission document publishes a date when that co-firing starts. The two extensions together define the Georgia coal fleet picture through the late 2030s.
Plant Bowen.
Through at least 2034.
Units 1 through 4, 3,160 MW, are approved for environmental controls and natural gas co-firing. Georgia Power has not published a retirement date for those units.
Plant Scherer Unit 3.
Through at least 2035.
Southern Company's annual report, filed February 18, 2026, lists extended operation of this unit, 614 MW based on 75 percent ownership, through at least December 31, 2035.
Co-fired ash is not the same ash.
The Class F fly ash that has historically supplied Georgia ready-mix from Plant Bowen and Plant Scherer remains available under the current plan. Co-firing introduces a chemistry variable. The ash produced by a co-fired unit is not identical to ash produced by a coal-only unit, because the boiler chemistry shifts when natural gas burns simultaneously with coal.
The co-fire transition is a chemistry inflection point. Georgia Power has not published a start date, and operational details of the co-fire program are not yet public, so neither the timing nor the magnitude of the chemistry shift is known at this time. What is documented: the Commission approved co-firing, a shift will occur, and the documentation of ash source and chemistry at the point of pour becomes more, not less, important once the co-fire program goes live.
PSIP-certified pours document the specific ash source and chemistry at point of pour, which becomes the contractor's record when the underlying ash chemistry has shifted under their feet.
Conditional supply. In plain view.
The extensions operate on a regulatory premise. Georgia Power's stated reason for the co-firing program is continued compliance with federal environmental regulations, so the plan is built around a specific federal rule package. That package is itself in motion. EPA proposed rescinding the 2024 carbon pollution standards for power plants on June 11, 2025, and as of August 2026 the final repeal is still under review at the Office of Management and Budget. Federal regulatory cycles change. Administrations change. Rule packages tighten and loosen across cycles.
A federal regulatory cycle reversal is not predicted here. What is documented: the supply preservation is conditional on the current federal regulatory posture, and the conditional structure is the actual operational picture. For Georgia residential concrete in 2026, the Class F fly ash supply chain reads as stable through the late 2030s. The premise underneath that read is a federal regulatory posture that can change. Both facts are true at the same time.
Conditional supply meets unconditional documentation.
PSIP-certified contractors document the specific ash source on the batch ticket, verify chemistry against the exposure class, and retain the closeout packet. The protocol scores. The protocol does not recommend products.