As the Cobb County Board of Commissioners prepares to vote Tuesday, Aug. 11, on extending its moratorium on data center applications, a new natural gas plant expansion 50 miles northwest shows what that demand looks like on the grid: 1,500 megawatts of fossil fuel generation, a record federal loan, and a court fight over metro Atlanta's air.
Georgia Power broke ground Tuesday, July 28, on two combined-cycle natural gas turbines and 500 megawatts of battery storage at Plant Bowen in Euharlee, Bartow County. The project is part of nearly 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity the Georgia Public Service Commission approved in December 2025, largely to serve data centers, according to the Cobb County Courier.
Georgia Power President Kim Greene told state and federal officials at the ceremony that the utility needs the capacity now. "Many of you may have seen just last week an announcement outside of Savannah, where a customer is coming and needs almost as much generation as is produced at this plant," Greene said, referencing a recently announced OpenAI data center in Effingham County.
Plant Bowen has operated coal-fired units since 1975. Georgia Power had planned to retire those units by 2028 but reversed course, citing data center demand. U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk and state Rep. Matthew Gambill attended the groundbreaking.
Record federal loan
The expansion is backed by a $26.5 billion DOE loan to parent company Southern Company, the largest in department history. The loan funds power generation, transmission, and grid projects across Georgia and Alabama that will eventually add over 16,000 megawatts of capacity. Georgia Power says it will deliver an estimated $7.3 billion in electricity cost savings for customers over 30 years, according to Power Technology.
Air permit challenged in court
The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Sierra Club, is challenging the plant's air permit in Fulton County Superior Court. SELC attorney Marissa Land told the Georgia Recorder on Aug. 3 that the state Environmental Protection Division failed to protect Georgians from bad air quality by not applying the most stringent requirements to Plant Bowen, even as the Atlanta area experiences unhealthy ozone levels.
SELC's court filing argues the greater Atlanta area is violating federal air quality standards again, just four years after it was cleared from federal monitoring in October 2022. A state administrative judge previously ruled in Georgia Power's favor, finding the utility followed the correct permitting process. SELC and Sierra Club appealed.
The American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air report, released April 21, ranked the Atlanta metro 43rd most polluted nationally for ozone and gave it an F grade. Fulton, DeKalb, and Henry counties each received F grades for high ozone days.
Cobb County fared better, earning a B grade for ozone with one elevated day over the 2022–2024 monitoring period, according to ALA data. SELC argues the expansion will push pollution higher across the region.
Georgia EPD spokesperson Sara Lips did not return multiple requests for comment from the Georgia Recorder.
Moratorium vote ahead
Community Development Agency director Jessica Guinn confirmed the moratorium extension will appear on the Aug. 11 BOC agenda, according to East Cobb News. The moratorium covers unincorporated Cobb County, including East Cobb.
County staff noted in the agenda item that data centers "can impact local infrastructure and utilities significantly. Specifically, the power and water supply demands present a strain to local resources." The county's zoning code, adopted in 1972, has no provisions for data center land use.
Residents can attend the Aug. 11 meeting at the Cobb County government building or submit comments through the county's online portal.
