Beth Lowry Gives Georgia Power a Builder for Grid Crunch

Beth Lowry Georgia Power board appointment puts the head of Holder Construction inside the governance circle of a utility facing a massive building cycle: new generation, more than 1,000 miles of transmission planning and rising data center demand. The election matters because her background sits exactly where the utility’s next risk lives, construction execution.

The Atlanta utility announced the election on May 26, 2026, saying Lowry is president and chief executive of Holder Construction, a $10 billion Atlanta-based construction services firm founded in 1960. Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company and serves 2.8 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties, according to the May 26 company release.

A Board Seat Timed to a Building Cycle

Board appointments at regulated utilities are often read as civic honors. This one reads more like an operating signal. Lowry joined Holder in 1994 as an intern and now runs a national contractor with eight offices and current projects in more than 15 states. The company works in data centers, aviation, corporate offices, science and technology buildings, advanced manufacturing and adaptive reuse.

That mix lands neatly against the utility’s public problem set. Georgia has been selling itself as a place where big companies can build, and the power system now has to catch up with the factories, server halls and transmission corridors that follow. Kim Greene, chairman, president and chief executive of Georgia Power, made that connection explicit in the announcement.

Beth’s deep experience in construction and development will provide great value for our customers and company.

Greene said that in the company release, tying the appointment to new power plants and transmission and distribution infrastructure. The more telling part is what the release did not need to say at length: construction risk has become governance risk for a utility whose next decade depends on getting steel, turbines, substations and permits lined up in the correct order.

The Load Forecast Behind the Appointment

The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC, the state regulator that approves long-term utility plans) has already moved the debate from theory to orders. In its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP, the utility’s long-range supply planning case), Georgia Power projected about 8,500 megawatts (MW, a unit of power capacity) of electrical load growth over six years, with about 2,600 MW more peak demand by the end of 2030 than in the 2023 update, according to the utility’s 2025 IRP page.

• 8,500 MW – projected six-year load growth in the approved 2025 plan.
• 15,600 MW – committed electric service from 32 large-load customers disclosed in a later filing.
• 9,985 MW – new generation certified by the PSC in December 2025, with about 80 percent expected for data centers.
• 1,000-plus miles – transmission work included in the utility’s 10-year plan.

The numbers show why a construction executive is useful in the room. A spreadsheet can approve capacity faster than a county can approve a route, a manufacturer can ship equipment or a contractor can staff a site. That gap is where overruns, delays and customer anger grow.

The PSC’s own March data center fact sheet shows how fast the state’s assumptions changed. Georgia Power estimated in 2022 that it needed only 400 MW of new generation over seven years. By 2023, with data centers spreading, that figure had reached 6,600 MW. Two years later, it was 8,500 MW.

Georgia’s Grid Plan Moves From Forecast to Procurement

The appointment also arrives after the utility started seeking the next block of resources. In April 2026, the company asked the PSC to approve final documents for an all-source request for proposal to procure 2,000 to 6,000 MW of new dispatchable capacity for 2032 and 2033. It also sought certification for about 385 MW of supplemental solar resources through the CARES program, according to the dispatchable capacity filing announcement.

Plant Wansley gives a sample of the execution challenge. The company said in May that the retired coal site is being rebuilt with two new combined-cycle units producing a combined 1,453 MW, plus a 500 MW battery project. Georgia Power also pointed to planned or active work at Plant Bowen, Plant McIntosh and Plant Yates.

Those projects are engineering tasks, but they are also public trust tests. The company has to convince regulators and customers that the buildout is sized to demand that will pay for it, not a speculative wave that leaves households carrying stranded costs.

Holder’s Data Center Work Sends the Boardroom Signal

Holder’s relevance goes beyond being a big local contractor. At a Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business event, Lowry discussed industry trends and said 60 to 70 percent of Holder’s current projects were tied to data center construction, according to Georgia Tech’s account of the business talk. That is close to the demand category forcing utilities across the country to rewrite load forecasts.

For Georgia Power, that experience cuts two ways. The utility gains a director who knows how data center owners think about speed, site readiness, power availability and vendor coordination. It also brings the optics of a utility adding a data center construction specialist while public debate is centered on whether data centers are getting too much of the state’s infrastructure attention.

The same tension is visible far beyond Georgia. Mind Cron recently reported on how India AI data centres are putting power before the job boom, a pattern in which server halls promise investment but run into the hard ceiling of electricity and grid planning. Another Mind Cron report on Big Tech’s fossil fuel use in the data center boom shows the same problem from the emissions side.

That broader fight gives the new director a sharper brief. The company does not need a generic growth cheerleader. It needs someone who can ask when a construction timeline is wishful, when procurement is thin, and when local workforce claims fail to match the labor plan.

Ratepayers Remain the Pressure Point

The utility and regulators have tried to answer the obvious public question: who pays if the data center wave slows? The PSC fact sheet says the commission approved rules for large-load customers that include minimum billing requirements, longer contract terms and contract submissions at least 30 days before execution. The purpose is to keep new infrastructure costs from shifting to existing customers if a large user exits early.

Several safeguards now sit around the expansion plan:

• Quarterly Large Load Economic Development Reports to track new data center commitments.
• Minimum billing rules and longer contract terms for new large-load customers.
• PSC review of new data center contracts before execution.
• A company backstop for certain costs tied to new energy production through 2031.
• A base-rate freeze through the end of 2028, separate from fuel and storm cost proceedings.

Those provisions matter, but they do not erase the politics. The PSC said in July 2025 that commissioners approved at least 6,000 MW of new energy between 2029 and 2031, with another 2,500 MW possible if need is proven. The same notice said Georgia Power and the PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff disagreed during hearings over how much power large-load customers would consume, even though both sides agreed the demand would be large.

That is the narrow path for the board. If the projects arrive late, customers still feel scarcity. If too much is built for customers that do not materialize, customers fear the bill. The cheapest capacity is the project that arrives on schedule and is paid for by the load that made it necessary.

Atlanta’s Civic Network Gives the Seat More Reach

Lowry also brings a civic map that matches the utility’s operating territory. The company release lists board service with the Rotary Club of Atlanta, Georgia Research Alliance, Atlanta Police Foundation, CareerRise, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Earlier service included the Latin American Association, Girls Inc. of Greater Atlanta and the U.S. Green Building Council.

That network matters because energy planning is no longer sealed inside a utility filing. It touches workforce training, university construction programs, county zoning, business recruitment and neighborhood opposition. The new director created the Lowry Family Scholarship at Kennesaw State University in 2022 for freshmen pursuing construction management, and she is a KSU Foundation trustee. She also holds a building construction degree from the University of Florida.

Georgia’s elected leadership has leaned hard into the growth story. Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said the state was named Area Development magazine’s No. 1 state for business for the 12th straight year in 2025, a point the company also used in its board announcement. The growth pitch works only if the power system can keep pace with the buildings it attracts.

Delivery Becomes the Boardroom Test

The board seat has an obvious public-relations layer: a respected Atlanta executive joins one of the state’s most important companies. The deeper read is simpler and more demanding. Georgia Power is adding construction judgment while its regulatory future is being shaped by construction facts.

Lowry will not decide the state’s energy future alone. Greene, Southern Company, the PSC, county officials, data center owners and ratepayer advocates all sit in the chain. Still, the appointment shows where the pressure has moved. The fight ahead is less about whether Georgia wants growth and more about whether its grid can be built fast enough, cheaply enough and credibly enough to support it.

If the new capacity lands with firm customers behind it, the board appointment will look well timed. If the schedule slips or the demand math weakens, the construction expert in the room will be asked why.