Tony Gantt was sitting in his living room in southern Georgia with the lights off, a deliberate choice, showing a visitor his social media exchange with an elected official over skyrocketing electric bills.
“My GA Power bill in Nov 2022 was $159,” Mr. Gantt posted on X last fall, attaching screenshots. “My bill now is $615 plus. Robbery.”
He got a response from Tim Echols, a member of the Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. Suspecting a malfunctioning air-conditioner, Mr. Echols asked Mr. Gantt for more details.
Actually, Mr. Gantt replied, his air-conditioner was new. The only explanation for his “obscene” bills, he told Mr. Echols, was a series of rate increases that the commission had approved, despite “people begging you to not raise rates.”
Mr. Gantt will have a chance to amplify his voice on Tuesday, when Mr. Echols will compete in a special primary election. It will be the first time in five years that any of the commission’s five members have faced voters.
Georgia is one of only 10 states with elected, rather than appointed, utility regulators, who play a key role in energy and climate policy. So this week’s primary and the general election in November, when Mr. Echols’s seat and another will be up for grabs, will be a rare referendum on residential electric bills, at a time when prices have risen sharply across the country.
The obscure but powerful commission, whose members are all Republican, has approved six rate increases over the last two years. Residential customers of Georgia Power, the state’s largest electric provider, have seen their bills rise by $518 a year, or 33 percent, on average.
Factoring in natural gas, water and internet costs, Georgia residents now pay among the highest energy bills in the country, trailing only Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut and West Virginia.
The races for the commission seats will be the only ones on the statewide ballot in November. Whether the energy bills will raise turnout for what has historically been a low-profile election is a big question. But three out of four Americans, across party lines, are worried about rising utility bills, according to a recent Ipsos poll commissioned by PowerLines, an advocacy group focused on reducing power bills.
Energy costs rose sharply around the country after natural gas prices spiked when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. In Georgia, additional factors include $17 billion in cost overruns from Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear generators and new infrastructure to support an anticipated surge in electricity demand from data centers.
President Trump’s domestic policy bill could further inflate prices by ending federal tax credits for low-carbon sources of electricity like wind and sun, companies and researchers say.
In South Carolina and Florida, some Republican legislators have become more vocal in challenging energy companies hungry to build new natural gas power plants and pipelines to accommodate more data centers.
The companies have also faced tough questions in Georgia. State Senator Chuck Hufstetler, a Republican who chairs his chamber’s finance committee, sought to create a watchdog office that could represent consumers in court cases against utility companies. He also wanted data centers doing business in Georgia to pay additional costs. But Republican leaders blocked both bills.
“It’s the one area we’ve got to work on to maintain our competitive advantage,” Mr. Hufstetler said of electricity costs. The Georgia Public Service Commission, he added, “has given Georgia Power 99 percent of what they asked for.”
Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, announced last month that Georgia Power had reached a deal with the commission to freeze base rates for three years. “This rate freeze will help Georgia families in the time they need it most,” he said.
But Patty Durand, a former candidate for the commission who recently started a utility watchdog group, said ratepayers would still likely absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel and storm damage costs. In TikTok videos criticizing the freeze, she contended that the timing was intended to help the commission’s Republican incumbents.
No Democrat has served on the commission since 2007. Commissioners serve staggered six-year terms and must live in specific districts, even though the elections are statewide. Their annual salary in fiscal year 2024 was a little over $128,000.
A federal lawsuit in 2020 argued that the statewide elections for commission seats were unfair to Black voters. That prompted the cancellation of elections for members in 2022 and 2024. But an appeals court ruled against the plaintiffs, allowing for elections to proceed again this year.
Mr. Echols, who lives outside Athens, frequently roams the state to talk about economic development and electric vehicles. He also hosts a podcast on energy and sustainability. “I love this job,” he said in an interview.
His Republican primary challenger is Lee Muns, a businessman from the Augusta area who has expressed concern about a growing number of people getting their power cut off after falling behind on bills.
Whoever wins Mr. Echols’s seat on Tuesday will take on Alicia Johnson, a health management and community development executive from Savannah. She is alarmed by the commission’s approval of Georgia Power’s robust return on investment, which is well above the industry average.
“We want them to make profit, but not at the expense of rural underserved communities who are already trying to eke out a living,” Dr. Johnson, a Democrat, said.
The struggle to pay energy bills could become more difficult if President Trump follows through with a plan to eliminate a $4 billion federal program that helps low-income households pay their electricity bills. Nancy Thompkins, 65, of Savannah, recently sought and received an emergency grant of $500 from the program to help pay off her Georgia Power bills. “It’s a blessing,” she said.
The other incumbent on the commission, Fitz Johnson (no relation to Alicia), is a former defense contractor and candidate for state superintendent of schools. He identified his top priorities as stabilizing costs for ratepayers, as well as grid reliability and safety.
Three Democrats are vying to take on Mr. Johnson in November. (A fourth was disqualified.)
Keisha Waites, a former State Representative and Atlanta City Council member, said she would focus on oversight so that the commission “actually is a watchdog for consumers.”
Robert Jones, a former state regulator and Microsoft executive, said commissioners should stop accepting contributions from utility lawyers and consultants — the people whose work they are supposed to regulate.
And Peter Hubbard, a clean energy consultant, warned that Georgia Power was relying on exaggerated forecasts of future electricity demands to justify using more fossil fuels to accommodate data centers. “Who’s going to be left holding the bag?” he said. “It’s going to be the ratepayer.”
A Georgia Power spokesman, John Kraft, said the company had a “relentless focus on affordability for customers.” Its rates for retail customers have been 15 percent below the national average since 1990, he said.
The cost of living consumes Mr. Gantt, 59, who lives with his wife, Jess, and three other family members in Ray City.
The family has canceled Netflix and other subscriptions. They haven’t gone out to eat in maybe a year. Mr. Gantt traded in his Harley-Davidson Road Glide Ultra — “That was my baby,” he sighed — for a Suzuki DR650 to save $250 in monthly payments.
Sometimes at night, the only illuminated room in the house is that of his uncle, Eddie Eidson, who suffered a double brain aneurysm.
By day, Mr. Gantt hunches over his laptop in the living room, working remotely as a field investigator for an adjustment company. The computer screen is his only light source.
Not so long ago, he said, “We weren’t energy-conscious like we are now, and our bills were still less.”
David W. Chen reports on state legislatures, state level policymaking and the political forces behind them.
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