ATLANTA, Ga. — A super PAC tied to the solar industry’s national trade group is putting $250,000 into ads for the two Democrats running for the Georgia Public Service Commission, the five-member board that sets what Georgia Power can charge its customers.
The money comes from American Power Forward PAC, affiliated with a nonprofit connected to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The ads are running on digital platforms and connected TV, including streaming services, on behalf of Commissioner Peter Hubbard and candidate Shelia Edwards.
Two seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot. In District 3, Hubbard, a Democrat, faces Republican Fitz Johnson, the former commissioner he unseated in a 2025 special election. In District 5, Democrat Edwards faces Republican Josh Tolbert for the seat Republican Tricia Pridemore gave up to run for the U.S. House.
Control of the panel is at stake. The 2025 elections turned a 5-0 Republican commission into a 3-2 Republican majority. If both Hubbard and Edwards win, Democrats take a 3-2 majority; a win by either Johnson or Tolbert keeps Republicans in charge.
Although commissioners represent districts, they are elected statewide to six-year terms. If no District 5 candidate wins a majority, the top two will meet in a Dec. 1 runoff.
The stakes include how Georgia Power meets demand from data centers. The utility is seeking to build large new gas-fired plants to serve AI customers, and clean energy backers want regulators to push for more solar paired with batteries. Hubbard, a former energy analyst, has estimated that electricity discounts for data centers shift more than a billion dollars in infrastructure costs onto residential customers, and Edwards says data centers must pay the full cost of the infrastructure built to serve them.
The $250,000 is small next to the $77.6 million spent so far on Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, but it is the solar trade group’s largest investment in an election to date, coming after last year’s federal budget law cut tax credits for renewable energy.
