PSC orders Georgia Power to pay its customers $43.6 million

Atlanta-based Georgia Power, a unit of Southern Company, recently won approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission to pass along to consumers big cost overruns for the utility’s troubled and unfinished nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. MATT KEMPNER / AJC

Atlanta-based Georgia Power, a unit of Southern Company, recently won approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission to pass along to consumers big cost overruns for the utility’s troubled and unfinished nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. MATT KEMPNER / AJC

State regulators have ordered Georgia Power to refund its customers $43.2 million, which the company earned above the approved limits set by the commission in 2013.

In a statement, the commissioners unanimously ordered the utility company to return to its customers two thirds of its earnings for 2016 that were above the set 10.95% Return on Equity (ROE). The company would retain the other third.

The decision follows a December 2013 agreement, in which commissioners ruled that any earnings the company gets above 12% would be shared.

Georgia Power had recommended the ROE be set at 11.50%.

The Public Service Commission has yet to establish the amount each customer will receive and when the refunds will be sent out.

The regulators have also ordered the company to provide to the commission by February 20th, the amount the company will save following the recent tax cuts signed into law by president Trump. According to the new law, corporate taxes were slashed from 35% to 21%.

The order by the commission for dollar amounts of the savings the utility expects to make following the tax cuts that came into effect on January 1, follows recent decisions by utility companies in Maryland and Illinois to cut rates for its customers.