Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel released a new report warning that homeowners in the state could face $1.6 billion in additional power bill costs over the next decade to subsidize transmission line upgrades, largely due to data center demand outside Maryland, more specifically from data centers in Northern Virginia.
OPC filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) arguing that PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid operator, is forcing Maryland power customers to shoulder costs for grid expansion projects that feed into Northern Virginia. The complaint was titled “OPC complaint challenges PJM cost rules for unfairly assigning $2 billion in data center-driven transmission costs to Marylanders.”
People’s Counsel David Lapp said Maryland residents neither caused the need for the transmission line projects nor will they meaningfully benefit from them:
“Without FERC action, Maryland customers face paying billions for transmission infrastructure that PJM is advancing to benefit data centers. PJM’s cost allocation rules are broken. Maryland customers have neither caused the need for these billions in new transmission projects nor will they meaningfully benefit from them.”
The complaint comes as the Mid-Atlantic region, specifically Maryland, is locked in a power bill crisis, with a confluence of bad “green” energy policies colliding with the AI data center boom.
Not mentioned by the OPC or the one-party-ruled state of Democratic Party kings and queens is that Maryland is structurally dependent on imported power through PJM. It does not produce enough electricity inside the state to cover its own load, which makes power customers more exposed to regional grid costs, transmission upgrades, electricity price spikes, and data-center-driven demand growth outside of Maryland.
How did Maryland get to the point where it has to import roughly 24 million megawatt-hours of electricity a year, using 2024 EIA data, or about 40% of in-state electricity demand?
keep voting democrat!
“cause this is what you’ll get.
Liars and lies, and more lies