Marietta Power and Water (City of Marietta) Rate Selection Guide
Marietta Power and Water is Georgia's largest municipal electric utility, serving over 42,500 electric customers across Marietta and Cobb County. Despite a near-real-time Tantalus TUNet AMI network covering 36,000+ meters, customer-facing data access stays portal-bound: the Click2Gov portal provides 36 months of billing history and monthly consumption reports, but there is no Green Button, EDI, public API, or formal third-party data program — interval data requires a direct utility request.
Market Overview
Marietta Power and Water operates under Georgia's Territorial Electric Service Act as a municipal utility. Customers with connected loads of 900 kW or more may have additional supplier options under the territorial framework, but this does not enable third-party data access. Rates, including monthly Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA) updates, are published in the Click2Gov portal across 17 geographic billing cycles.
Need to pull your actual usage data to compare rates? See the Marietta Power and Water (City of Marietta) Data Access Guide →
Current Rate Schedules
Marietta Power is a municipal utility supplied wholesale by MEAG Power (Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia), with retail rates set by the city's Board of Lights and Water and City Council rather than the Georgia PSC. Bills combine class-based base rates with a Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA) updated monthly to track MEAG wholesale costs — the PPA is the volatile line item to watch. Marietta publishes current residential and commercial rates through the Click2Gov customer portal rather than a public tariff book, and the utility's longstanding positioning is rates below neighboring Georgia Power and Cobb EMC for comparable commercial load profiles — contact Marietta Power or check the portal's Rates section for current dollar figures. A distributed generation tariff (under Georgia's DG Act) is published with specific charges.
Effective: January 1, 2025 · Full Tariff Book →
| Schedule | Type | Applicability | Structure | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Commercial / General Service | commercial | Smaller commercial accounts — offices, retail, restaurants — without large demand | Customer charge plus energy charges and monthly PPA; demand billing applies above utility-defined thresholds — see tariff for current rates | — |
| Large Commercial / Industrial Power Service | industrial | Demand-metered commercial and industrial accounts; historical city benchmarking covered profiles from 50 kW through 1,000+ kW | Customer, demand, and energy charges plus monthly PPA; load factor materially affects effective cost — Marietta's published comparisons show lower total bills than Georgia Power and Cobb EMC at 40–60% load factors; see tariff for current rates | — |
| Distributed Generation (DG Act) Tariff | commercial | Customers selling output from renewable DG up to 10 kW residential / 100 kW commercial, capped program-wide at 0.2% of prior-year peak demand | Bi-directional metering charge $4.50/month; stand-by capacity charge $3.00/kW-month of nameplate; avoided energy compensation $0.032/kWh based on MEAG wholesale market price, reviewed quarterly | $0.032/kWh avoided-cost export credit+ $3.00/kW-month stand-by capacity |
Rate Recommendations by Use Case
Office, retail, and restaurant corridors (Marietta Square, Cobb Parkway)
Small commercial accounts on general service carry energy-driven bills plus the monthly PPA — simple structure, but the PPA makes month-to-month costs move with MEAG wholesale prices.
Without complex demand or TOU mechanics, the savings levers are consumption efficiency and PPA awareness. Marietta's AMI (Tantalus) data through the customer portal lets businesses verify exactly which equipment drives usage.
- Pull near-real-time AMI usage from the customer portal to baseline HVAC and refrigeration loads
- Track the monthly PPA rate in Click2Gov — budget against it rather than the base rate alone
- Benchmark your bill against Georgia Power PLS/Cobb EMC equivalents annually; Marietta's competitiveness is your negotiating context for any service questions
Manufacturing and large facilities (demand-metered)
Marietta's industrial corridor loads bill on demand-metered schedules where load factor drives effective cost — the city's own benchmarking presents bills at 40–60% load factor profiles.
Because MEAG wholesale costs pass through the PPA and demand charges recover capacity, flattening load and shaving peaks attack both major bill components. Confirm current demand charge levels with Marietta Power before modeling.
- Stagger large motor and HVAC starts to control the interval demand that sets the billed kW
- Improve load factor — the city's comparisons show effective rates fall as load factor rises from 40% to 60%
- Request 15-minute interval data from the utility to identify peak-setting events; AMI infrastructure supports it
Facilities considering on-site solar (≤100 kW)
Marietta's DG tariff accepts commercial systems up to 100 kW, but compensation runs at avoided wholesale cost ($0.032/kWh) with a $3.00/kW-month stand-by charge — economics that strongly favor self-consumption sizing.
Exports earn roughly a quarter of retail value while stand-by charges accrue on full nameplate capacity. A 100 kW system pays $300/month in stand-by charges regardless of output, so systems should be sized so nearly all generation offsets on-site load.
- Size solar below daytime minimum load — export credits at $0.032/kWh rarely justify oversizing
- Net the $3.00/kW-month stand-by charge into payback models; it's $36/kW-year off solar economics
- Check program capacity — DG purchases are first-come, first-served up to 0.2% of prior-year peak demand
Cost Optimization Strategies
Marietta Power's municipal structure concentrates optimization into three areas: the monthly Purchased Power Adjustment (the pass-through of MEAG wholesale costs), demand and load factor on metered commercial schedules, and efficient consumption verified through the city's Tantalus AMI data. Rates are already low relative to Georgia Power and Cobb EMC, so the focus is protecting that advantage rather than rate-switching.
PPA tracking and budget hedging
For: All commercial and industrial accounts
The Purchased Power Adjustment updates monthly with MEAG wholesale costs and can move bills independent of usage. Pull the current PPA from Click2Gov each month and budget energy costs on base-plus-PPA, flagging months where the adjustment spikes.
Demand peak management
For: Large commercial and industrial demand-billed accounts
Demand-metered accounts pay for their highest interval draw. Sequence equipment startups, interlock non-coincident loads, and pre-condition spaces to keep the billing peak flat — AMI interval data shows exactly which 15-minute windows set the peak.
Load factor improvement
For: Industrial and multi-shift commercial operations
Marietta's own commercial benchmarking frames costs by load factor (40–60% profiles). Spreading production and HVAC operation across more hours per month lowers the effective per-kWh cost on demand-billed schedules.
AMI-verified efficiency projects
For: All accounts with AMI meters (utility-wide deployment)
The Tantalus TUNet AMI provides near-real-time consumption data. Use it to baseline before lighting, HVAC, or refrigeration retrofits and to verify realized savings afterward — measurement closes the loop on every efficiency dollar.
Right-sized self-generation
For: Commercial customers with roof or site area, up to 100 kW systems
Under the DG tariff, self-consumed solar offsets full retail value while exports earn $0.032/kWh minus $3.00/kW-month stand-by charges. Size systems to daytime base load and pair with load shifting (pre-cooling, scheduled equipment) to absorb generation on-site.
To implement these strategies, you need your 15-minute interval data. Learn how to download Marietta Power and Water (City of Marietta) interval data →
Frequently Asked Questions
Can C&I customers get interval data from Marietta Power and Water?▾
Not through the portal. The Tantalus TUNet AMI network collects near-real-time data from 36,000+ meters, but Click2Gov only shows monthly consumption summaries. Request interval data directly — email thepower@mariettaga.gov with 'Interval Data Request for Account [####]' or call 770-794-5150. Fulfillment, timeline, and format (CSV/XML/PDF) are at utility discretion.
Does Marietta support Green Button, EDI, or an API?▾
The utility itself has no Green Button/ESPI implementation, no EDI presence in national registries (DOE guide, ANSI X12 databases), and no public API or developer portal. Nectar provides API access to Marietta billing data — see docs.nectarclimate.com. The CivicPlus Click2Gov platform may also support limited vendor-side connectivity worth exploring separately.
How much billing history does the Click2Gov portal provide?▾
36 months (3 years) of payment and billing history, plus monthly consumption reports by service type for electric and water. Multiple service accounts can be linked to a single profile via Manage Accounts, and eBilling is available.
How does a consultant access a customer's Marietta data?▾
Manually. Either the customer shares bill images, consumption data, or screenshots from the portal, or the customer and consultant jointly submit a formal data request to thepower@mariettaga.gov with a signed authorization — expect a 5-10 business day review with no guaranteed outcome. Account credential sharing is not officially supported.
What rate considerations matter for large Marietta C&I accounts?▾
Rates including the monthly Purchased Power Adjustment are published in Click2Gov, and the utility runs 17 geographic billing cycles. Customers with connected loads of 900 kW or more may have additional supplier options under the Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act — worth evaluating for large facilities, though it does not unlock data access.
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