All along the Georgia coast, Georgia Power continues to strengthen, expand, and reinforce the power lines, poles, and substations that deliver energy every day to customers with major projects currently underway and planned for the future.  

These upgrades will enhance the coastal power grid making it smarter and stronger to better protect against extreme weather and to handle the additional load demand years of growth has brought to the region. 

“For more than hundred years, Georgia Power, preceded by Savannah Electric, has proudly helped power a growing region and provided electricity to thousands of customers along the Georgia coast,” said William Mock, Georgia Power’s Southeast Region Executive. “The Golden Isles and inland communities continue to thrive and we know that customers depend on us to keep energy reliable and affordable both today, and in the years to come. As we work to make essential investments in the grid to better serve our customers, our teams are committed to minimizing disruption in local communities.”

Eastern and coastal Georgia were among the hardest hit by Hurricane Helene in 2024—the most destructive storm in Georgia Power’s history. Advanced smart‑grid technology supported remote restoration, enabling crews to return service to more than one million customers within the first five days despite widespread devastation. Georgia Power replaced more than 11,800 poles, 1,500 miles of power lines, and 5,800 transformers following the storm. Portions of the coastal grid were rebuilt from the ground up.

Georgia Power has focused new construction projects on improving the redundancy of its power delivery system. Current and future project designs have taken into consideration the impact of potential storms and utilize smart engineering tactics to create redundancy in the system.

Major projects currently underway include the following, among others:

• West Savannah - In the Cloverdale and Carver Heights neighborhoods, along Mills B. Lane Boulevard and Liberty Parkway, Georgia Power is upgrading 2.7 miles of high-voltage transmission line improving reliability for hundreds of customers in Savannah and on the islands. This work is the final phase of a project that spanned over seven miles through the heart of Savannah and began last year.  When completed, the project will have replaced 32 aging poles originally installed in the 1970s with stronger composite poles along key power avenues.
• Jesup - Last year, Georgia Power began rebuilding 20 miles of a high-voltage transmission line in Jesup replacing the entire line with all new poles and conductor wire. Several of the wooden poles being replaced are over 30 years old while the conductor wire being upgraded dates to the 1950s. This project is slated to conclude in spring of next year and will include upgrades to a key substation along the route that will enhance service reliability to Offerman, Screven, and Jesup for years to come.
• West Chatham County - Construction on a new substation is nearing the final phase. When completed, it will be one of the largest substations in the State handling multiple high-voltage lines coming from nearby power generation plants. The addition of this substation will create a new redundancy circuit in the coastal grid that will protect power delivery in the event of outages due to extreme weather events and ensure Georgia Power can deliver energy to numerous new residential and commercial developments in West Chatham and neighboring counties.

Locally, under the Grid Investment Program, over 267 new devices have been installed improving reliability for more than 34,000 customers. One key project last year replaced overhead lines with underground lines on Wilmington Island reducing exposure to the elements, helping to enhance reliability for customers.

Over the next few years, several key projects will focus on enhancing and replacing poles and lines servicing barrier islands, including St. Simons Island and Tybee Island, ensuring that the delivery system can better withstand any potential outages. 

To learn more about how Georgia Power is improving the grid along the coast and in the entire state visitgeorgiapower.com/transmissionprojects.