Hundreds of invited guests gathered this week at Plant Bowen in Northwest Georgia as Georgia Power officially broke ground on one of the largest electric generation expansion projects in the company’s history.

The project will add new high-efficiency natural gas generating units and a large battery energy storage system to the site, helping meet Georgia’s rapidly growing demand for electricity. Company officials say the expansion will strengthen the electric grid, improve reliability during periods of peak demand and support continued residential, commercial and industrial growth across the state. Plant Bowen is already one of the largest electricity-generating facilities in the United States, and the additions are expected to significantly increase its capacity.

Georgia Power says electricity demand has grown at an unprecedented pace in recent years, fueled by population growth, new industries and large energy users, including data centers. The company maintains the additional generation is necessary to ensure customers have reliable power during periods of extreme weather and increasing demand.

The expansion, however, has drawn criticism from several environmental organizations, including the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club. The groups argue the project will increase air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions while locking Georgia into decades of additional fossil fuel use. They have challenged air permits issued for the project, claiming regulators failed to require stricter pollution controls and questioning whether the state’s projected electricity demand justifies the scale of the expansion.

Other critics have also questioned whether Georgia ratepayers could ultimately bear the cost of the expansion. Although Georgia Power has said residential customers will not subsidize electricity needed for large data centers, opponents argue the long-term costs and demand projections remain uncertain.

Construction at Plant Bowen is expected to continue over the next several years as Georgia Power works to expand the state’s electric generating capacity while balancing growing demand, reliability needs and environmental concerns.