Overview

Resources and Consumption

Georgia has no fossil fuel resources but does have substantial hydroelectric power resources located in several river basins. The largest energy-consuming sectors in the State are the transportation and industrial sectors. Industrial consumption is high, in part because Georgia is a leader in the energy-intensive wood and paper products industry.

Petroleum

Georgia receives petroleum products at the Port of Savannah and through the Colonial and Plantation pipelines, which run through the State from Texas and Louisiana. The Dixie Pipeline, also originating in the Gulf Coast region, supplies the State’s propane needs.

Natural Gas

Georgia purchases its natural gas from other States and from abroad, including Trinidad and Tobago and Egypt. The State receives large amounts of natural gas on a net basis and then delivers over two-thirds of those receipts to South Carolina. En route to major Northeast markets, minimal amounts of Georgia’s natural gas go to Florida and Tennessee. Several interstate pipeline systems, including systems operated by the Southern Natural Gas Company and Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company, supply Georgia from the Gulf Coast. Georgia also imports international supplies at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal located on Elba Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River. The Elba Island facility, which is one of nine existing LNG import sites in the United States, receives LNG by tanker from Trinidad and Tobago. An expansion of this facility has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and is expected to be completed sometime in 2010.

The industrial, electric power, and residential sectors are Georgia’s largest consumers of natural gas. Nearly one-half of all Georgia households use natural gas as their main energy source for home heating.

Coal, Electricity, and Renewables

Georgia’s electricity generation and consumption are among the highest in the United States. Coal and nuclear power dominate electricity generation in Georgia, with coal typically supplying about half of electricity output and nuclear supplying about one-fourth. There is no coal production in Georgia, and the State burns coal supplied mostly from Wyoming, Kentucky, and Virginia. Georgia’s two nuclear plants, both located in the eastern part of the State, make it a major producer of nuclear power. Georgia is also one of the top hydroelectric power producers east of the Rocky Mountains and one of the Nation’s top producers of power from wood and wood waste, with just over 9 percent of the Nation’s capacity. While Georgia does not have a renewable portfolio standard, the State adopted a net metering policy to credit customers' utility bills for electricity they provide to the grid generated from renewable sources.