OpenAI says Georgia campus can cut up to 1,000 MW of power use

OpenAI on Monday launched what it calls the Grid Protectors Program. The idea: its future data center campuses will cut their power use when the grid is strained. The first test is a planned campus in Effingham County, Ga., about 45 minutes outside Savannah, according to Georgia Power.

There, OpenAI’s agreement with Georgia Power includes up to 1,000 megawatts of “flexible demand response,” OpenAI says. The company says that equals the average electricity demand of roughly 700,000 households.

The deal in plain English

Georgia Power says the campus is expected to need about 3,200 MW. Under a 25-year agreement, the utility “will have the ability to reduce energy delivered to the OpenAI facility during certain times to support stability of the electric grid.” In other words, up to about a third of the campus’s expected load can be curtailed.

OpenAI says it will pay “the full infrastructure and electric-service costs” to serve the site. It says it may also supply power from on-site generation or storage and use batteries to smooth swings in demand.

What the public pages don’t say is how the curtailment works. OpenAI says each deal will set “how much demand can be reduced, how quickly and for how long,” and that “the arrangements will differ by location.” Neither company has published the notice period, how often cuts can be called or what happens if the campus falls short.

What Georgia Power says

The utility calls the deal “among the largest single-facility demand response commitments in the country.” It says the flexibility lets it “invest in fewer new generation resources to serve future growth.”

The contract was filed with the Georgia Public Service Commission in July and approved in August, Georgia Power says. The utility projects about $950 million a year in customer savings from 2029 across its portfolio of large-load contracts, not from OpenAI alone. It estimates savings of at least $15 a month, or $180 a year, for a typical home using 1,000 kilowatt-hours, up from the $102 a year it promised in December 2025.

The ratepayer rules

The deal sits under rules the PSC approved unanimously in January 2025. They let Georgia Power bill new customers above 100 MW on special terms, including minimum billing requirements and longer contracts, from 5-year to 15-year terms, so a data center cannot “shut down and leave the state before paying for new infrastructure,” the commission said. Every such contract must go to the PSC for review.

“The amount of energy these new industries consume is staggering,” PSC Chairman Jason Shaw said then.

Our read

Power is now the local politics of AI. Voters see the bill, not the model. OpenAI’s pitch is that a big, steady customer that backs off at peak can spread a utility’s fixed costs across more sales. It compares itself to the regular at a restaurant in a vacation town.

The logic is sound on paper. Peak demand drives the costliest grid builds, and a promise to curtail at the peak can be cheaper than a new power plant. But a demand response promise is only as good as its terms. How fast must the campus respond? How many hours a year? What is the penalty for missing a call? None of that is public in the pages we read.

The savings figures also deserve care. The $950 million is Georgia Power’s projection for a whole portfolio of contracts and expected growth, starting in 2029, for a campus OpenAI says is still in development. OpenAI itself concedes that “flexibility cannot replace investment in new energy supply and transmission.” Fair enough. Ratepayers should judge this by the contract terms, not the press releases.

What’s next

OpenAI says Effingham will serve as the pilot and that it will share more commitments “as they are finalized.” The 1,000 MW can only be tested once the campus is running. Watch the PSC docket for the curtailment terms, and Georgia Power’s 2029 bills for whether the $15 shows up.

Sources: OpenAI · Georgia Power, July 22, 2026 · Georgia Power, Aug. 26, 2026 · Georgia Public Service Commission, Jan. 23, 2025