OpenAI Says Its Georgia Data Center Will Switch Off a Gigawatt When Your Air Conditioner Needs It. The Campus Opens in 2028, the Cut Is 'Up To', and the Neighbors Protested It All Summer

OpenAI announced on November 2 a national 'Grid Protectors Program' under which its future data center campuses will agree with utilities to cut electricity use when the grid is strained, starting with its planned 3.2-gigawatt Effingham County, Georgia campus, where a 25-year Georgia Power deal lets the utility curtail up to 1,000 megawatts, about the average demand of 700,000 homes. OpenAI says it will pay the full infrastructure cost and that families should not subsidize a compute campus; the campus is still in development, delivery runs 2028-2032, the 1,000 MW is an 'up to' figure already in the July deal, Georgia Power's $950 million-a-year savings estimate is portfolio-wide, and OpenAI co-founded a lobbying alliance in September whose first job is to head off state and local data center moratoriums in Georgia and six other states.