Climate Solutions That Go Beyond Carbon: Shaping Georgia’s Energy Future

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Why the IRP Matters 

03:40 Kevin Kelly: What Is the IRP, and How Does the Process Work? 

22:50 Dr. Marilyn Brown: How the 2022 IRP Measures Up to Drawdown Georgia’s Goals 

46:38 Cicely Garrett: Where Is Equity in the IRP? 

59:10 Audience Q&A: Who the PSC Regulates and How to Get Involved 

01:01:59 Rooftop Solar, Net Metering, and Heat Pumps

Were you aware that the Georgia Power Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) process, and the decisions the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) makes, affect the pathway for scaling many Drawdown Georgia climate solutions?

In this edition of the Climate Solutions That Go Beyond Carbon webinar series, Blair Beasley of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation moderates a conversation with Kevin Kelly of Southface Institute, Dr. Marilyn Brown of Georgia Tech, and Cicely Garrett of Partnership for Southern Equity, unpacking how Georgia’s energy future gets decided, and what’s at stake as the 2022 IRP process gets underway.

What Is the IRP, and Why Does It Matter?

Kevin Kelly breaks down the Integrated Resource Plan, Georgia’s closest thing to a statewide energy plan: a 20-year roadmap Georgia Power must file with the PSC every three years, covering power plant retirements, new generation, transmission upgrades, and energy efficiency programs. He walks through the full procedural timeline, who the five elected PSC commissioners are, and the different groups of stakeholders who typically intervene in the process.

How Does the 2022 IRP Measure Up to Georgia’s Climate Goals?

Dr. Marilyn Brown compares Georgia Power’s 2022 IRP filing against Drawdown Georgia’s research on what’s achievable. While the plan’s utility-scale solar commitments exceed federal forecasts, they still fall short of Drawdown Georgia’s modeled potential, and rooftop solar, cogeneration, and heat pumps are all largely absent from the plan, despite real potential in each area.

Where Does Equity Show Up in a 1,500-Page Filing?

Cicely Garrett shares a striking finding: the word “equity” appears only a few times across the entire IRP filing, and even then, not in the way most people would use it. She argues that Georgia Power’s reliance on “total resource cost” as its measure of success, rather than people-centered outcomes, makes genuine equity difficult to achieve, and offers concrete ideas for how that could change.

How Can Everyday Georgians Get Involved?

The panel closes with a practical, audience-driven Q&A covering who the PSC actually regulates, why rooftop solar adoption remains so low in Georgia, the equity arguments being used both for and against net metering, and why heat pumps, despite their efficiency, haven’t gained traction with the state’s dominant utility.

Whether you’re new to utility regulation or have been following Georgia’s energy policy for years, this conversation offers a clear, accessible entry point into a process that shapes the state’s climate future for decades to come.

What You’ll Learn

• What the IRP is, how the process works, and why it only happens every three years.
• Who the five elected Public Service Commissioners are, and how to contact them.
• How Georgia Power’s 2022 solar and storage proposals compare to Drawdown Georgia’s research on what’s achievable.
• Why cogeneration, rooftop solar, and heat pumps remain underused climate solutions in Georgia.
• How often the word “equity” actually appears in the IRP, and what that reveals about the process.
• Concrete, practical ways Georgians can get involved, from public comments to meeting with commissioners.

Continue reading in our companion blog for more background on how the Georgia Power IRP process works and how Georgians can participate.

Download the Interview Transcript

Prefer to read the conversation instead? Download the complete PDF transcript of this webinar to explore these panelists’ insights on the Georgia Power IRP process and its impact on climate solutions in our state.