Georgia Power is negotiating to buy a 6.5-acre tract of land in Stanton Springs industrial park to build an electrical substation to provide power to Baxter and future tenants of the park.

Georgia Power is under a tight timeline to get the substation operational, according to Paul Michael with TPA Realty Services, the developer and marketer of Stanton Springs.

Michael presented the news to the Joint Development Authority Tuesday; Stanton Springs is jointly owned by Newton, Walton, Morgan and Jasper counties, and the authority contains officials from all four counties who oversee the park.

Georgia Power spokesman Mark Williams said the substation would be large with the potential to expand if needed.
Construction is set to begin in September and finish in December, taking approximately 14 weeks total.

Williams didn’t say how much capacity the substation would provide but said it will serve surrounding areas outside of Stanton Springs.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Michael said the most likely track would be for TPA Realty to buy land from the authority and then sell the land to Georgia Power.

New industries that will require more than 900 kilowatts of electricity are allowed to make a one-time decision on their electrical service provider.

Baxter chose to go with Georgia Power; the city of Covington was also competing to serve Baxter (it’s unknown if Snapping Shoals was also competing for the project).

Covington utility director Bill Meecham said he was never told why the city didn’t get the contract, but said the city will pursue other opportunities in Stanton Springs if they make sense for the city.

“Whether or not we would offer service to these larger customers depends upon the potential rewards,” Meecham said in an email. “We have by-passed some opportunities because the cost to serve was excessive or because the distance to the customer was too great to provide prompt service.”