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AGL Pool Groups: Why Some Georgia Gas Deals Are Atlanta-Only

Illustration: a house on a fenced terracotta plot surrounded by empty tiles.

If you have ever found a genuinely good Georgia gas rate and then been told you cannot have it, this is usually why.

Atlanta Gas Light’s system is not one undifferentiated territory. The Georgia Public Service Commission’s 2025 Annual Report puts it plainly: “AGL’s system is divided into nine discrete geographic pool groups across the state.” AGL files a monthly market-share report for each one, which the Commission reviews under O.C.G.A. § 46-4-157(c) to check that no group has become uncompetitive.

Marketers call them delivery groups. The PSC calls them pool groups. They are the same thing, and almost nobody explains them to the people they affect.

AGL names the nine itself, in the market-share report it files with the Commission every month. The September 2026 filing in Docket 10473 carries one sheet per pool group:

Pool group Metro-Atlanta?
Atlanta Yes
Ex-Atlanta SNG Yes
Ex-Atlanta Transco Yes
Augusta No
Brunswick No
Macon No
Rome No
Savannah No
Valdosta No

The three metro groups are why marketers write the restriction as “Atlanta, Ex-Atl., Transco” or “ATL, TRA, SNG”: those three names are one territory, the metro one, and the other six are everywhere else in AGL’s footprint.

Why they matter to you

Marketers do not have to offer every plan in every group, and they do not.

On the PSC’s September 2026 charts, 31 of the 125 filed plans carry a note restricting them to the Metro-Atlanta groups. The marketers write it themselves, in wording like:

Available only to customers in the Metro-Atlanta Delivery Groups (Atlanta, Ex-Atl., Transco)

and

Available to new customers in Metro-Atlanta Only (ATL, TRA, SNG Delivery Groups)

If you live in Savannah, Augusta, Macon, Rome, Valdosta or Brunswick, a quarter of this month’s filed plans are simply not for sale to you. The rate on the chart is real. It is just not real here.

The restriction runs the other way too. One marketer’s filing this month notes that for the Rome group, its fixed-rate plans are available only to existing customers, so a new Rome customer cannot buy them at all.

This is not the same as your rate being different

Worth being precise, because it is easy to get backwards: marketers file one price per plan, statewide. A plan that is available in both Savannah and Atlanta costs the same in both. There is no Savannah rate and no Atlanta rate.

What differs is the menu, not the prices on it. Two households on opposite sides of a group boundary see different lists of what they may buy, at identical prices for anything on both lists.

How to tell whether a plan is open to you

  1. Read the note. Every plan on our tables carries the marketer’s own filed note, and restrictions are stated there. So is the original chart, linked under each table, if you would rather read the PDF.
  2. Ask before you enroll. Ask the marketer whether that specific plan is available at your service address. Not your city: your address. Group boundaries do not follow city limits, and some ZIP codes are served by more than one group.
  3. Ask again if you move. A fixed rate may not follow you across a group boundary. Constellation’s own disclosure statement tells customers their contract can end if they relocate to a different delivery group within AGL and the rate is not offered in the new one. If you are moving within Georgia, treat your rate as something to re-confirm rather than assume.

Why it works this way

It is a consequence of how Georgia deregulated. When the Natural Gas Competition and Deregulation Act split the pipes from the sale of the gas in 1997, marketers had to be assigned firm pipeline capacity to serve the customers they signed, and that capacity is allocated by geographic group rather than statewide. A marketer holds a different capacity position in each group, which is why one can compete hard in Atlanta and not bother in Valdosta.

That also explains the Commission’s interest. The competitiveness test in the statute is applied per group, not to Georgia as a whole, precisely because a market can be healthy in one group and thin in another.

What we do about it

We publish every plan the PSC publishes, including the restricted ones, with the marketer’s own note attached rather than stripped. We would rather you see a plan and read that it is Atlanta-only than not see it and never know it existed.

We do not currently map addresses or ZIP codes to pool groups on this site. The names above are AGL’s own, from its monthly filing, and the count is confirmed by the Commission, so you can check both without us.

Boundaries are a different matter. They move as the system grows, and we have not found a current published one a reader could verify. AGL’s market-share filings name the groups but do not define them geographically, and the figures in them are redacted, so the public record says which nine exist without saying where they end. We would rather tell you to ask AGL than publish a boundary map we cannot stand behind, on a site whose whole argument is that you should not have to take our word for anything.

If you know of a published, current one, we would like to hear about it: [email protected].

The Georgia Public Service Commission does not rank or endorse marketers.

Which pool group am I in?

Enter a Georgia ZIP code and we will tell you which Atlanta Gas Light pool group it sits in, and whether the plans marketers restrict to metro Atlanta are open to you. Nothing is sent anywhere: the lookup runs in your browser against a table already on this page.

Five digits. We store nothing and there is nothing to sign up for.

Compiled by adPharos from Atlanta Gas Light materials, 2026-09-18. Atlanta Gas Light publishes no current boundary map, so unlike every rate on this site, this one mapping is ours rather than a public filing you can check. The Atlanta group list was refreshed 2026-09-04; the rest is older. AGL notes that areas within a ZIP code can vary. Confirm with the marketer before you enrol.

Common questions

What is an AGL pool group?
One of nine geographic divisions of Atlanta Gas Light's system. The Georgia Public Service Commission's 2025 Annual Report states that AGL's system is divided into nine discrete geographic pool groups across the state, and AGL files a monthly market-share report for each. Marketers call them delivery groups in the notes they file on the PSC's price charts.
Why can't I get the rate I saw advertised?
One common reason is that the plan is restricted to the Metro-Atlanta pool groups and you are not in one. Marketers state this on the PSC chart in wording like 'Available only to customers in the Metro-Atlanta Delivery Groups (Atlanta, Ex-Atl., Transco)'. The price is real; it is just not offered where you live.
How do I find out which pool group I am in?
Ask Atlanta Gas Light, or ask the marketer before you enroll. Ask the marketer directly whether the specific plan you want is available at your service address, and get the answer before you sign rather than after.
Does my pool group change my delivery charge?
The pool group is about capacity and which marketers serve an area, not a separate line on your bill. What varies by household is the capacity component of the AGL base charge, which is recalculated each August from your own home's use during the previous winter's coldest days.
What happens to my fixed rate if I move within Georgia?
It may not move with you. Constellation's own disclosure statement, for example, tells customers their contract can end if they relocate to a different delivery group within AGL and the fixed rate is not offered in the new group. If you are moving, ask before you assume your rate transfers.

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