The Georgia Supreme Court has denied a request by Sawnee EMC to take up and consider a final appeal in a long-running lawsuit over the right to serve an electric vehicle (EV) charging station.
The case arose from Georgia Power’s extension of electric service to an EV charging station installed in a retail parking lot located within Sawnee EMC’s assigned electric service territory. Georgia Power claimed that the owner of the EV charging station, Electrify America, had the “customer choice” right to choose its own electric supplier because the EV charging station qualified as a “large-load” premises. The Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act’s large-load exception applies to a premises that has electric service “utilized by one consumer,” single-metered service, and a connected load of 900 kW or greater at the time of initial full operation.
The EV charging station at issue consisted of six power cabinets that were connected to four EV “dispensers.” EV owners drive up to the station and plug the dispensers into their EVs to charge their car batteries. Because the charging station dispensed direct electric current power to the cars, the power cabinets contained an internal device called a “rectifier” that converted the incoming alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC).
In May 2021, Sawnee EMC commenced an action before the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) objecting to Georgia Power’s service to the EV charging station. The parties in the case disputed whether the rectifier equipment “consumes” the electricity and should therefore be included in the load count of the premises. On the one hand, including the rectifiers in the load count for the premises pushed the connected load of the EV charging station above 900 kW. On the other hand, if the rectifiers were excluded from the load count, the premises would not have met the 900 kW threshold. The parties also disputed whether the EV charging station was utilized by one consumer. Sawnee EMC argued that the charging station was in fact used by many different EV owners who drove up to the station and plugged the dispensers into their EVs. Georgia Power argued that the only consumer at the premises was the owner of the charging station, Electrify America.
The PSC agreed with Georgia Power, finding that the EV charging station qualified for the large-load exception because the rectifiers should be included in the load count and the one consumer was Electrify America, not the various EV owners. The Superior Court of Fulton County and the Georgia Court of Appeals (in a 2-1 vote) each affirmed the decision of the PSC. On February 18, 2025, the Georgia Supreme Court denied Sawnee EMC’s petition for certiorari, which means Georgia’s highest court declined to hear a further and final challenge to the PSC’s decision. Accordingly, the PSC’s determination that the EV charging station at issue in the case qualifies for customer choice under the large-load exception to the Territorial Act stands.
Sawnee EMC is represented by James Orr, Lee Peifer, and Ben Reed of Eversheds Sutherland.
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