Here's how to take control of your rising electric bill in 2024
Wondering why your Georgia Power bills are on the rise? The Public Service Commission approved a 12% increase over three years in December 2022 to pay for construction cost overages of Plant Vogtle nuclear power Units 3 and 4. An additional 12% rate hike became immediately effective in June '23 to cover fuel cost increases. The PSC has just approved a third rate hike! The most recent, a 6% increase in December to again cover costs to build Vogtle Unit 3. Another large rate increase is likely to follow when Unit 4 begins operations, now projected to happen by March 2024.
The good news is - You can lock in your cost of energy. When you go solar, the only cost is the installation (except for minor maintenance costs every few years). The electricity your solar produces over its 25-year warranted life doesn't cost anything additional. Accounting for the cost of solar and the amount of power it will produce in its 25-year warranty period, the cost of solar power is only about one-third of what the utility charges for electricity, and that only gets better with time. This is visualized in the chart for you.
In the chart to the left, we've visualized the difference in cost of electricity between solar power and today's Georgia Power rates. You can see the cost-per-kWh (kWh is short for kilowatt-hour which is the unit of measurement for electricity) continues to rise from the utility as opposed to solar being at a fixed cost. With solar, you're essentially paying up front for the 25+ years of electricity it will produce.