How Our Tools and Data Analytics are Reshaping Site Selection in Georgia

How Georgia Power’s Proprietary Tools and Data Analytics Are Reshaping Site Selection in Georgia

In today’s fast-moving business environment, site decisions increasingly hinge on the ability to turn complex data into actionable insights. Companies demand sites that can quickly meet operational, workforce, and infrastructure needs.

For the Georgia Power Economic Development Strategic Solutions group, data has become the most powerful differentiator. Combining proprietary analytics with decades of on-the-ground experience, our team is helping companies locate and evaluate sites with greater precision than ever before, often significantly reducing the traditional decision timeline.

The Evolution of Data-Driven Site Selection

Site selection has always been both an art and a science, marrying hard data with deep local knowledge. But as competition for industrial investment intensifies, analytics now play a central role in evaluating risk, workforce alignment, and long-term sustainability.

Our group brings those elements together. The team’s experts in GIS, economics, engineering, and demographics produce in-depth studies on everything from labor availability and commuting patterns to site readiness and utility infrastructure. These insights guide corporate location strategies and help community partners compete at the highest levels.

“Our goal is to help companies make decisions based on verified data, not assumptions,” said Strategic Solutions Director Jennifer Zeller. “When a project lands in Georgia, we want it to be because every variable was backed by the best available information.”

Proprietary Tools Built for Precision

Georgia Power’s in-house platforms give site selectors and consultants the tools they need to analyze locations from every angle.

The Site Selector tool, for instance, allows users to search and compare sites and buildings across Georgia using real-time, validated data. Unlike open listings, every property in the Site Selector database is vetted before posting, ensuring accuracy in details such as utility availability, zoning, and infrastructure access.

Behind the interface, a deeper layer of intelligence combines demographic data, workforce analytics, and utility mapping. This allows companies to assess how each location aligns with their business goals. That level of granularity, combined with the team's engineering insight, enables faster and more confident decision-making.

SAM™: A Smarter Approach to Site Identification

Georgia Power has an eye on the future of industrial sites in Georgia. Our Site Assessment Matrix (SAM™) — a proprietary and now trademarked evaluation model — proactively identifies and ranks potential industrial sites before they’re even on the market.

SAM™ leverages a combination of GIS analysis, infrastructure modeling, and local field verification to score each site across key dimensions like access to power, gas, water, and sewer systems, proximity to transportation infrastructure, workforce accessibility, environmental factors, and community engagement. Each site is then ranked based on these weighted criteria, creating a clear, data-backed snapshot of industrial development viability.

The hybrid model of data science and local expertise allows our teams to pinpoint high-potential properties long before they appear on a client’s shortlist.

“When we present a site to a company, that due diligence has already been done,” said Zeller. “That means fewer surprises, and more confidence in the final location.”

Vetted Data for a Faster Path to Market

For companies making multimillion-dollar location decisions, speed to market is often as important as cost or workforce. Our approach helps to streamline the process.

Each site in our system — whether identified through SAM™ or posted in Site Selector — has been reviewed for infrastructure, utility readiness, and site development feasibility. That pre-vetting eliminates the uncertainty that often slows down site selection, helping clients move from evaluation to construction with greater efficiency.

The result is a measurable payoff. When decision timelines shrink from months to weeks, companies gain a competitive edge, and communities see new investment sooner.

Driving Community Readiness Across Georgia

Georgia Power’s data-driven process doesn’t just serve companies; it also strengthens the ecosystem that supports them. SAM™ assessments have become a roadmap for local communities seeking to improve their industrial product.

By pinpointing where gaps exist — from insufficient utility capacity to limited access roads — our team helps local partners target investments that raise a site’s readiness level. Over time, those insights have transformed how communities across Georgia prepare for growth.

In this way, Georgia Power is not only helping businesses choose the right location; we're also helping create those locations through proactive planning and partnership.

A Proven Partner in Economic Development

From major manufacturing projects to emerging technology hubs, our team's analytics have informed some of the state’s most significant project decisions. As Georgia continues to be a national leader in business growth and infrastructure investment, we remain focused on what’s next: using data to drive opportunity for companies and communities alike.

For businesses looking to expand or relocate, Georgia Power’s combination of proprietary tools and local expertise offers a decisive advantage: insight that translates to action.

Because in today’s landscape, the right data doesn’t just inform a site decision – it powers it.