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A vocal critic of the Georgia Public Service Commission was arrested outside a hearing Tuesday, accused of stealing Georgia Power documents containing confidential information. The incident occurred as the commission considers the utility’s controversial request to expand natural gas plants and add new batteries to meet rising demand.

Capitol Police arrested activist and onetime Democratic commission candidate Patty Durand Tuesday afternoon after she was seen on video taking documents from a desk in the hearing room, according to the warrant for her arrest. She was booked into the Fulton County Jail on a charge of theft of trade secrets, a felony that carries a penalty of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.

Georgia Power routinely redacts certain details from its public filings, including specific costs and contract details, arguing they’re trade secret. The commissioners and interested parties who formally intervene in commission proceedings and agree to keep the numbers private can access them.

Durand has often criticized this practice. In her newsletter, she has written that Georgia Power uses the trade secret designation “to block public transparency” and called the commission’s rules for data center contracts “worthless” because those contracts are trade secrets.

Durand is a longtime critic of both the utility and the commission who frequently speaks during the public comment portion of hearings; publishes a newsletter about Georgia Power, the commission, and energy issues; and filed to run for a seat on the commission in 2022 before that election was suspended due to an unrelated lawsuit. Earlier this year she founded the nonprofit Georgians for Affordable Energy to address utility costs and regulation in Georgia.

“It is unfathomable to me why anyone listens to Georgia Power’s lawyers, staff or witnesses about anything,” Durand said during the hearing’s public comment period Tuesday, before the alleged incident. “Their claims about costs and demand growth have no credibility because nothing they said in the past has proven even close to true.”

The hearing broke for lunch about 45 minutes later. In footage during the lunch break obtained by WABE through a public records request, Durand can be seen picking up a booklet from the desk used by commission staff, then replacing it. She goes on to pick up a similar booklet from the desk used by Georgia Power’s lawyers and flips through the pages before placing it in her bag and leaving the hearing room.

According to the warrant for her arrest, the booklet contained trade secret information.

A spokesman for the commission declined to comment, saying in an email only that “it is a matter for law enforcement.” Georgia Power said in a statement that it was cooperating with law enforcement and could not comment on a criminal investigation. The utility did call the issue “a serious matter.”

“While we operate transparently, some data must remain confidential to protect customer interests and ensure we deliver the best value to all customers,” the Georgia Power statement emailed to WABE read. “Unauthorized disclosure risks harming both our company, the vendors and contractors with whom we do business, and the customers we serve.”

This week’s hearings, which wrapped up Wednesday afternoon, concern Georgia Power’s request to build new natural gas turbines at existing power plants and install storage batteries to help meet rising energy demand, mostly from data centers.

The utility, which is the largest in Georgia and the only one fully overseen by the commission, has maintained for the last two years that a large, rapid spike in demand for electricity is coming due to the influx of data centers, which use enormous amounts of power, particularly for generative AI.

Critics from Durand, to the Sierra Club, to the commission’s own staff have questioned and cast doubt on that forecast. They contend that the massive data centers used for AI, known as hyperscalers, are a relatively new industry with little real-world information available, and that the utility is overestimating how many will actually materialize.

Earlier this year, in wrapping up Georgia Power’s long-term planning process, the company agreed to keep adjusting its forecast as it gets more information. The latest forecast is part of this week’s proceedings.

Georgia Power is asking the commission to certify more than 8,000 megawatts’ worth of new natural gas turbines, storage batteries and agreements to buy energy from other companies — four times the amount of energy the new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle generate. While the specific cost estimate for each project is trade secret, the utility’s filing lists a total cost of at least $15 billion.

The commissioners have previously approved the idea that Georgia Power needs most of this power, but now they are considering whether to let the company actually build it. They’re due to vote December 19.

The commission is holding these hearings as early voting is underway for two of its five seats.

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Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.