01 of 06 What Council hasn't been told
Power: How much, and who pays?
A data center uses a huge amount of electricity, all day and all night. Nobody has told the public how much this one will use, what it will pay, or who pays for the new power lines it needs.
The short version
- The builder asked Georgia Power for up to 99 megawatts. That is about as much power as tens of thousands of homes use.
- Georgia's strongest protections for regular customers start at 100 megawatts. 99 is one under the line.
- Under 100, the deal is private. The state's own power regulators told us they only see it after it's signed, and even then it's kept secret as a trade secret.
How big is 99 megawatts?
One megawatt is roughly enough power for about 800 average homes, running nonstop. That's based on the U.S. Energy Information Administration's numbers for how much power a home uses in a year. So 99 megawatts is in the range of tens of thousands of homes, for one building.
The builder's own concept plan says the building needs 40 to 90 megawatts. But in an email to the Development Authority of Bulloch County, the developer wrote:
"We have based these values and timetables on the 99 MW we have requested from Georgia Power."
(Email from Bobby Bagwell, May 7, 2026, received through an open records request.)
Why 99, and not 100?
In 2025, Georgia's Public Service Commission (the PSC, the state board that watches over Georgia Power) drew a line at 100 megawatts.
At 100 or more, the big customer has to sign a real contract that the PSC reviews. It has to pay for the power lines and grid upgrades built just for it. And it has to promise to keep paying for up to 15 years, so it can't walk away and leave the bill on the rest of us.
Under 100, those automatic protections don't kick in. Georgia Power can still write unknown terms into a private contract. The PSC doesn't negotiate these deals, doesn't approve them, and can't tell the public what's in them. So nobody reviews them in any real sense.
And because nobody in Statesboro can see the contract, nobody can check whether it lines up with what our own ordinance promises, like "cost-stability" for the people already paying power bills. Things could be written in, or left out, on purpose or by accident, and the City would never know.
99 vs. 100, and the four-year loophole
At 100 megawatts or more: the PSC's 2025 rule makes the company pay for the grid upgrades built for it. The contract can run up to 15 years, with minimum payments, and the PSC reviews it first.
Under 100 (Burkhalter asked for 99): that rule doesn't automatically apply. Georgia Power's rate list says big customers pay costs "not recovered through this tariff," but how much, and for how long, is private.
Whether this deal covers the grid upgrades is in a private contract nobody here can check.
And even at 100 or more, there's a loophole. PSC Commissioner Peter Hubbard put it this way, as reported by the Statesboro Herald:
"It is possible to get out of that contract in less than 15 years. You can give notice and then pay another two years, and then pay another two years on top of that. So, with four years of payments, you can get out of paying the full 15."
(Statesboro Herald, April 22, 2026.) And in August, he said: if a company gets out early, "someone has to pay for the infrastructure that was built." (The Current, August 4, 2026.)
A legal brief filed with the PSC in December 2025 makes the same point. It says Georgia Power's contracts "only require minimum bill payments for two years after termination, regardless of the remaining term of the contract. On a fifteen year contract, more than a decade's worth of bills could go unpaid." (Southern Environmental Law Center brief for Georgia Interfaith Power & Light and Southface, PSC Dockets 56298 and 56310.)
Our worry: if a company leaves early, the cost of what was built for it could land on regular customers' bills. Many families here are already stretched thin. We worry some of our neighbors couldn't afford to stay.
The boom may not last. Commissioner Hubbard again: "I just don't trust that the AI bubble is not going to burst, and it's a big risky bet that they're asking us to take." (The Current, August 4, 2026.) Experts have also called data center growth forecasts speculative. We've all watched big buildings empty out before, like the abandoned shopping centers around town. And the builder's own teardown plan lets the building shell stay.
We asked the City for the Georgia Power letter. This is all it had.
The ordinance has one rule about electricity. It says "a letter of preliminary acceptance may be issued to allow for the study of a project."
On October 8, 2026, we asked the City for that letter, and for any letter from Georgia Power about serving this site or how much power it would get.
On October 12, the City's planning department sent back one page. It's the same letter the City gave us on September 1. In it, Georgia Power says it got the developer's intake form and that the project "has been accepted into our new project evaluation process." Read the letter (PDF, 1 page). (We blacked out a Georgia Power employee's cell phone number.)
That's a receipt for a form.
It has no date. It doesn't say how many megawatts. It doesn't say Georgia Power can serve the site, or who pays for the upgrades.
So here is what we know: the City's files hold no promise from Georgia Power to power this building.
Is this letter what the ordinance means by "preliminary acceptance"? If it is, the ordinance asks for almost nothing. If it isn't, where is the real one?
What the PSC told us, in writing
On September 1, 2026, the PSC told us it had no filing, no case number, and no contract on record for this address. The only Georgia Power paperwork anyone has shown us is one short letter the City sent us twice.
On September 24 we asked the PSC to look at this 99 MW request, and to give projects under 100 megawatts the same protections. On September 29, the PSC's Electric Unit Director, Rob Trokey, wrote back:
"The Commission and Commission Staff are not involved in customer negotiations and only know details for contracts under 100 MW after execution, which are subject to trade secret disclosure requirements."
In plain words: for a deal like this one, the state finds out after it's signed, and the details can stay secret.
He also told us our request "has been shared with Commissioners as input on suggested modifications to rules and regulations for large load customers." He told us the information "may be passed along to others."
The rate list the PSC sent us
A tariff is Georgia Power's official rate list. Mr. Trokey sent us the one for very big customers: Schedule "TOU-SC-16," Time of Use, Supplier Choice, in effect starting with June 2026 bills. Read the tariff (PDF, 3 pages).
Two doors in. The tariff covers (1) new customers who get to pick their power company under Georgia's 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act, or (2) any customer that needs 100 megawatts or more. Under that 1973 law, new customers with 900 kilowatts or more get to choose. 99 megawatts is about 110 times bigger than that. So a project under 100 MW can still use this rate list through the first door.
What the rate list actually says:
- The busy-hours price is on the page: 16.88 cents per kilowatt-hour. But busy hours are only 2 to 7 PM on weekdays, June through September.
- Every other hour of the year, the price is "Customer Specific." Georgia Power works it out itself, "based on the cost to serve the customer's load and location." That covers nights, weekends, and eight months of the year. That number isn't on any public list.
- The tariff says big customers "will be responsible to the Company for any additional cost associated with providing service not recovered through this tariff." That sounds good. But how much, and for how long, lives in a private contract.
- The contract "will specify the amounts the customer must pay in the event of termination." So the walk-away terms are in the private contract too.
- The standard contract is three years, unless the private contract says something else.
So the rules exist, but the numbers that matter are secret. Nobody in Statesboro can check whether this deal protects the rest of us, unless the City asks to see it.
What Statesboro's own rules promise
The City's data center ordinance (Ordinance 2026-01) starts with a promise. It says the rules are meant to make sure:
"the extraordinary electrical and water demands of Data Centers do not compromise the reliability, capacity, or cost-stability of municipal and regional utility systems for existing residents and businesses."
But look at what the ordinance actually asks for:
- Gas: a "will serve letter" from the City's Director of Public Utilities.
- Water: a full water plan.
- Electricity: only that "a letter of preliminary acceptance may be issued to allow for the study of a project." No contract. No power number. No promise about who pays.
Why does the ordinance hold water and gas to tighter rules than power? Electricity is the biggest demand of all, and it only needs a letter "to allow for the study of a project." Was that intentional, at a company's request, or a mistake?
There's one more catch. The permit ends "12 months after cessation, as determined by the lack of use (i.e., utility consumption)." But the City doesn't sell this building its electricity. Georgia Power does. How will the City know if it shuts down?
If it shuts down, who checks?
The ordinance says the builder must turn in "a Decommissioning Plan or financial surety (bond or escrow)" to pay for tearing it down. A plan alone counts. The builder turned in a 2-page plan, written by its engineer, Thomas & Hutton, on July 1, 2026. Read the plan (PDF). Here's what it says:
- When it starts: "upon the permanent cessation of the data center use." It never says what "permanent" means.
- When the City hears about it: "within a reasonable period." No deadline.
- Money: no bond, no escrow, and no cost estimate.
- What gets removed: the cooling system, the electrical gear, batteries, generators and fuel tanks.
- What's missing from that list: the computer servers. The plan's own purpose line says "IT/Cooling systems," and the ordinance requires removing "all IT infrastructure," but the servers aren't on the removal list.
- What may stay: the building shell, the roads, the equipment pads, the storm drains and the fire systems.
- It's stamped "Confidential Draft Template."
Who's watching the power use? As far as the records show, nobody local. Georgia Power meters the electricity, not the City. The sealed cooling loop uses so little water that the City's water meter can't show a shutdown either. And the power contract itself is a trade secret.
What Council should require
Before any vote on the Special Use Permit, Council should require the City Attorney and staff to review the full, unredacted Georgia Power contract, under a confidentiality agreement.
That is the only way we know of for the City to check, verify and ensure compliance with its own ordinance. These promises come straight from Ordinance 2026-01 itself. Without seeing the contract, the City can't show it is keeping any of them:
- "Cost-stability" for the people already paying power bills (Section A.1).
- Knowing when the data center stops. The permit ends 12 months after "utility consumption" stops (Section H.3). How can Council be sure utility use has stopped when the City isn't the power provider? Will Council require a yearly report of all utility use, so it can keep checking compliance and protect its residents?
- Who pays if it leaves early (Sections A.1 and H.2). The City can't know the cost of the grid upgrades, or control them. If the company leaves early, before Georgia Power's contract is paid off, how can Council keep its "cost-stability" promise, under a 99 MW contract the PSC doesn't review or approve?
- How much power it will really use. The ordinance only asks for a "preliminary acceptance" letter (Section D.5).
Trade secrets can stay secret. The City can still look.
What other big deals got
Under the 2025 rule, a much bigger Georgia Power deal for an OpenAI data center in Effingham County came with real promises. Georgia Power can't bill regular customers if that data center shuts down early. It has to tell regulators within 15 days if that happens. And it pledged to shave $15 a month off the average bill starting in 2029.
That $15 isn't a discount. It means future bills will be $15 lower than they would have been. They may still be higher than what you pay today. Consumer watchdogs say even these protections might not hold up. And since Burkhalter has no named operator, there's no way to know if its contract would include any of them.
Voters noticed. In November 2025, Georgia voters threw out two PSC commissioners, largely over rising power bills and worries about data centers. One winner, Peter Hubbard, had said in June 2025: "You can drive a Mack truck through the loopholes."
Who is going to monitor this building's power use? What steps exist to make sure it actually gets torn down, and who pays for it? Who will monitor a private contract between two large corporations if that contract is protected as a trade secret? How does Council intend to enforce the ordinance's own promise of "cost-stability" in Section A.1, under a 99 MW contract the PSC doesn't review or approve? Will Council review the full, unredacted contract, confidentially, before voting on the Special Use Permit? Will it require a yearly report of all utility use? Why does the ordinance hold water and gas to tighter rules than power: was that intentional, at a company's request, or a mistake? Has Georgia Power accepted this request, and can residents see the preliminary acceptance letter? And if the facility later grows past 99 megawatts, who checks?
A letter to Statesboro City Council
We don't want to be the experiment.
Dear Mayor and Council,
We love our community and ask for a seat at the table. Please vote no on the Special Use Permit for this data center so we can amend the ordinance together to establish stronger protections that keep us safe and benefit residents.
This process has moved faster than the speed of trust. While council and staff have had nearly a year of research, discussions, developer input, and a data center tour in Atlanta, most citizens lacked those opportunities. At the August 18 rezoning hearing, those of us who were there watched the council chambers fill 30 minutes before the meeting started, and the atrium fill with just as many people who couldn't get in. Many didn't get to speak. The Mayor called for "one more individual," then the hearing closed, and one resident asked that her objection be noted because she "felt the Council was not adequately hearing from its constituents" (August 18 minutes, page 8). Even now, residents are still learning how data centers impact our homes, water, and power bills.
Most residents are unfamiliar with local government processes like annexation and rezoning. Many feel notice was insufficient to participate in a decision with such vast community impacts, leaving us unable to trust the process at this time.
The current ordinance protections are insufficient. Key information is lacking regarding regulatory differences between a 99MW and 100MW contract, and how the city can enforce its ordinance without reviewing contracts before execution. A brief filed with the PSC, citing testimony at a PSC hearing, highlights significant loopholes in the PSC's own regulations, showing that when a company ends its contract early, Georgia Power's big-customer contracts only require minimum bill payments for two years, potentially leaving residents to pay over a decade of costs on a 15 year contract.
Why do we say "experiment"? There is still so much nobody knows about data centers: how loud they get at night, how much power and water they really use, and what happens when they shut down. Some health effects are already known, like the air pollution from backup generators and the lost sleep that comes with constant noise. Others are still being studied, like the low vibration that people living near data centers say makes them sick. And this is new technology that keeps changing, so new health risks could show up years from now. If neighbors get sick, the cost doesn't stop with them. It could raise health costs for the City's own employees, for the Board of Education, and for every family paying its own medical bills. And nothing in the ordinance makes the company pay for health costs or damages like these. This data center would sit right next to our homes. The builder's own application points to the big Georgia Power lines, 230kV and 115kV, that already cross this land. We believe that's why this spot was picked: it's cheaper to plug into power lines that are already there than to build new ones somewhere else. That makes the people of Statesboro, including the retired professionals who chose these neighborhoods to settle down in, a corporate guinea pig.
Statesboro should not be an experiment. Please vote no on this permit and work with us to fix the ordinance.
Your neighbors,
Protect Statesboro