Georgia, Louisiana PSC Elections Nov. 3: 2 Seats Each, Meta Hyperion Power
The Georgia Public Service Commission election and Louisiana PSC election each fill two of five seats on Nov. 3. Louisiana's commission faces a pending vote on gas plants for Meta's Hyperion data center.
Chips & Power DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
Follows our story: US Midterms Poll Finds 69% of Democrats Back Data Center Limits
Meta's rendering of its Richland Parish, Louisiana, data center campus, the Hyperion site whose gas plants the Louisiana commission is weighing. The image is an illustration, not a photograph of the finished site.
Image: Meta
Source · Press image from the Meta data centers site, used for news reporting.
Georgia's Public Service Commission election and Louisiana's PSC election are on the Nov. 3 ballot, along with two Arizona Corporation Commission seats, and these regulators decide how the power for data centers is generated and paid for, according to Inside Climate News and The American Prospect.
Georgia and Louisiana each have two of five commission seats up, Arizona two seats; Louisiana's pending vote involves gas plants for Meta's Hyperion data center.
Illustration (AI-generated)
Georgia and Louisiana each vote on two of five Public Service Commission seats, the Prospect reported on Oct. 28. In Arizona, two seats on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission are up, and the panel now has a 5-0 Republican majority, according to Inside Climate News, republished by Spotlight PA.
This adds a new layer to the votes we have covered. Voters in 10 states decide at least 41 local data center measures, as Voltgrid reported on Oct. 30, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 69% of Democrats back data center limits, against 43% of Republicans, in our Oct. 22 story. Those votes decide where a campus can be built. The commission seats decide what it plugs into and who pays.
Georgia PSC Election: Hold One Seat, Flip One
Democrats won two of Georgia's five commission seats last year, ending full Republican control. Incumbent Peter Hubbard (District 3) faces Republican Fitz Johnson in a rematch, and Democrat Shelia Edwards faces Republican Josh Tolbert in District 5, the Prospect reported. If Hubbard holds and Edwards wins, the commission would have a Democratic majority for the first time since 1996.
Georgia has more than four times as many data centers as Louisiana, the Prospect said. It also reported that a solar-industry political action committee is spending $250,000 on ads backing Hubbard and Edwards, and that Georgia Power needs several large gas plants to serve rising demand.
Louisiana PSC Election and the Meta Hyperion Seat
Both open Louisiana seats come from term limits: Democrat Foster Campbell in District 5 and Republican chairman Eric Skrmetta in District 1. In District 1, Republican state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty faces Democrat Connie Norris. In District 5, Republican John Atkins faces Democrat James Green. Flipping District 1 would give Democrats a majority, the Prospect reported.
District 5 includes Richland Parish, where Meta is building its Hyperion data center. In April the commission voted to speed up Entergy Louisiana's application for seven new gas plants for the project, bringing the total to 10 with three approved last year, the Prospect said. Commissioner Davante Lewis cast the only vote against. The Prospect puts the project at $50 billion and says it was first slated for 2.5 GW, with 7.5 GW more now needed.
Hyperion Vote Date Still Unconfirmed
The Prospect says a final commission vote on the Hyperion plants is expected Nov. 18. Other local reporting has pointed to December, so the date is not settled. Neither source says how any winner would vote on large-customer contracts.
Ohio and Wisconsin work differently. Ohio's governor appoints the Public Utilities Commission, and Inside Climate News says both gubernatorial candidates, Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy, support limits on data center development, with Acton more specific. In Wisconsin, Republican legislators have stalled votes on two of the three Public Service Commission nominees, so the next governor could pick new ones.
