Georgia's largest battery energy storage facility is now up and running in northeast Cherokee County, a 530-megawatt operation built to store power and release it the instant the grid needs it. The McGrau Ford Battery Facility sits on 40 acres at 1501 Conns Creek Road near Ball Ground, where it holds 1,100 self-contained Tesla battery units arranged in individual locker-style enclosures designed to run around the clock.
Cherokee County and state officials joined Georgia Power representatives Friday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the opening, according to tribuneledgernews.com. As CBS News Atlanta reports, the batteries themselves don't generate any electricity — they simply charge from the grid and store it for release when demand spikes, functioning as backup muscle rather than a new power source.
Why Georgia Power Picked Ball Ground
Georgia Power's senior vice president and senior production officer, Rick Anderson, said Ball Ground offered a strong spot to tie into the company's grid, with the site selection built around available land and existing access to the transmission system, per CBS News Atlanta. Anderson told WSB-TV that speed is the whole point of the technology: “these batteries will step up, they're really fast,” he said, describing how they can respond to reliability problems or outages far quicker than traditional power sources.
Anderson also said the batteries can soak up electricity when nighttime costs are low or when there's excess capacity on the system, banking it for later use, according to CBS News Atlanta's report. He added that the stored power can step in when nuclear, gas, or solar units run into trouble, giving Georgia Power another layer of backup when other generation falls short.
What It Means — and Doesn't Mean — for Bills
Georgia Power says battery storage helps control costs for customers by letting the company bank cheaper power and draw on it during periods of high grid demand instead of relying on pricier generation in the moment. But the company isn't promising an immediate drop in monthly bills, according to CBS News Atlanta's reporting. The facility's electricity isn't confined to Georgia Power customers or its own service area — it feeds directly into the company's transmission network, which connects into the broader power system across the Southeast.
Georgia Public Service Commission Vice Chairman Lauren “Bubba” McDonald Jr. framed the project's value simply: reliability is the main benefit, he said, according to CBS News Atlanta. About 200 people worked to build the facility, which now employs 11 full-time staff, per the same report. Georgia Power also noted that the McGrau Ford site's phases share transmission infrastructure, which the company says helps minimize costs.
Part of a Much Bigger Build-Out
The McGrau Ford project isn't a standalone effort — it's one piece of a statewide push. Georgia Power has said construction is underway on 765 megawatts of new battery storage across Bibb, Lowndes, Floyd and Cherokee counties, with the McGrau Ford Phase I and II projects in Cherokee County together accounting for 530 megawatts. The company's earlier projections listed commercial-operation dates of October 2026 for Phase I and September 2026 for Phase II.
That expansion tracks with Georgia Power's approved 2025 Integrated Resource Plan, which calls for adding more than 1,500 megawatts of battery storage systems statewide, the company's IRP filing shows. The plan anticipates roughly 8,500 megawatts of electrical load growth over six years, including an increase of about 2,600 megawatts by the end of 2030 compared with the utility's 2023 projections — a reflection of surging demand the company is racing to meet.
Other battery projects detailed in reporting from macon.com include a 128-megawatt system at Robins Air Force Base charged mainly by an existing solar array, a 57.5-megawatt system at Plant Hammond chosen for its existing infrastructure, and a 49.5-megawatt system paired with solar at Moody Air Force Base. The outlet also reported that a 265-megawatt battery system was already under construction at the McGrau Ford site itself, and that Georgia Power expected four such systems statewide to come online between May and November 2026. Looking further ahead, Georgia Power expects to have 12 battery sites totaling more than 4,000 megawatts by 2030, including two additional projects that pair batteries with solar generation.
