Maryland citizens slapped with $2 billion power grid upgrade bill for out-of-state AI data centers — state complains to federal energy regulators, says additional cost breaks ‘ratepayer protection pledge’ promises
Source: Tom’s Hardware
Image credit: Shutterstock
Background
The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel (OPC), a state agency that represents utility consumers, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) concerning PJM Interconnection, LLC’s plan to allocate $2 billion of the $22 billion spent on upgrading the grid to accommodate growing demand from data centers.
According to the OPC press release, the $2 billion charge would add $1.6 billion to Maryland consumers’ bills over the next ten years:
- Residential: $823 million (≈ $345 per customer)
- Commercial: $146 million (≈ $673 per customer)
- Industrial: $629 million (≈ $15,074 per customer)
“Without FERC action, Maryland customers face paying billions for transmission infrastructure that PJM is advancing to benefit data centers,” said Maryland People’s Counsel David S. Lapp. “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.”
PJM Interconnection Overview
PJM Interconnection, LLC is the United States’ largest electricity transmission organization, covering 13 states plus Washington, D.C.:
- Delaware
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Maryland
- Michigan
- New Jersey
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- West Virginia
The network serves roughly 65 million people, about 20 % of the U.S. population. Several of these states, including Maryland, host a large number of data centers, prompting PJM to upgrade infrastructure to meet projected demand from power‑hungry AI systems.
State Position
Maryland argues that the costs of these upgrades should be charged directly to the areas where the infrastructure is built, or—per the “ratepayer protection pledge” that tech companies were asked to sign—billed directly to the data center operators themselves. The OPC notes “extreme uncertainty” regarding load growth driven by data center demand and warns that utility providers may profit from the upgrades even if the anticipated demand never materializes. Consequently, existing utility customers could bear the costs while data centers avoid payment by not adhering to the pledge.