by Lily Carey

The Baltimore Sun (Online) Published on Jan 21, 2026.

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[Direct Link to the Baltimore Sun]

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Maryland lawmakers and energy advocates expressed cautious optimism this week that a new plan by the state’s electric grid operator targeting data center power generation will boost the electric supply while lowering consumer costs. The concern, however, is that the proposal will slow new renewable energy projects — an issue PJM’s system has struggled with for years.

 

“We also have to recognize how much of this is a crisis of PJM’s own making,” said state Del. Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat from Montgomery County. “Just the fact that we have less generation online than we should, the fact that there’s a supply-demand mismatch, is because PJM has had this broken [system] for years.”

 

Under the proposal by PJM Interconnection, which manages the electric grid in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and 12 other states, data centers in the supply region will be encouraged to provide their own power and face the impacts of rolling blackouts first. The plan, which addressed managing “large load additions,” was released last Friday, the same day that Gov. Wes Moore joined the Trump administration and 12 other governors calling on PJM to cut costs for consumers.

 

The grid operator’s proposal doesn’t address all of their demands, including a request for the grid operator to freeze energy prices through 2030. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun that the Trump administration is continuing to call for PJM’s “full cooperation” with their proposal, saying that it is “best for the mid-Atlantic region” and has the support of tech developers like Microsoft, Google and OpenAI.

 

Marylanders’ electric bills have skyrocketed in recent months, partially due to the growing electricity demand of data centers in the mid-Atlantic that strain the region’s energy supply. According to PJM Board President David Mills, the plan aims to provide more reliability for customers.

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“This is not a yes/no to data centers. This is ‘How can we do this while keeping the lights on and recognizing the impact on consumers at the same time?’” Mills said. “We look forward to implementing, along with our stakeholders, these proposals to manage the phenomenal demand growth we are experiencing.”

 

Data centers not required to power themselves

 

Under PJM’s proposal, utilities will be required to limit data center power usage before residents and businesses during periods of high demand.

 

David Lapp, the People’s Counsel of Maryland, said limiting that power before resorting to rolling blackouts is “certainly important.”

“Curtailment [of data centers] should happen before energy prices go up as a result of the massive data center load growth, which is a much earlier point in time,” Lapp said.

 

There is a way for data centers to avoid having their power curtailed under the plan: if they “bring their own new generation,” or come in with a plan to supply their own power through gas turbines, solar panels or other types of electricity generators.

 

The proposal also establishes a separate, “expedited” approval process for data centers with their own generation strategy and state-backed electricity projects that will produce at least 250 megawatts of power.

 

Typically, new power plants and electric generation systems need to wait in PJM’s interconnection queue to get approval to connect to the electric grid, which has drawn criticism for historically having yearslong wait times, though PJM has been slowly working through its backlog of connection requests. The expedited approval process would be entirely separate from the current queue.

 

Last week’s proposal from the governors and the Trump administration called for PJM to make this “bring your own generation” model mandatory for all data centers. Although PJM won’t require this, the plan does provide an incentive for data centers to power themselves.

Charkoudian said that, by fast-tracking data centers that meet the “bring your own generation” requirements, PJM could further delay the addition of new energy supply to the grid.

 

Chesapeake Climate Action Network federal director Quentin Scott said he was concerned that this new fast-track process could favor coal and gas power. “The fastest way to reduce energy costs is to build the clean energy waiting on PJM’s approval to connect to the grid. However, instead of deploying the clean energy projects already in their queue, PJM is beginning a new process that will favor fossil fuel power plants,” Scott said in a statement.

 

According to PJM spokesperson Jeff Shields, the expedited approval process is “not looking for a specific fuel type or technology” and will prioritize large projects, regardless of fuel source.

 

Clearer estimates for energy demand

 

PJM will also change how it estimates the energy demand of data centers, which Charkoudian said is “one of the strongest parts” of the approach.

 

“Right now, if the same data center is looking into the possibility of building in [three different places] … that 500 megawatts of potential demand is getting counted three different times,” she said. “If you’re over-projecting, then you’re going to pay way more than you need to, and that’s all on ratepayers. So getting those projections right is absolutely fundamental to fixing the system.”

PJM sets its electric prices based on the maximum capacity it would need to provide, so overestimates of data center demand can directly translate into higher costs for customers.

 

Lapp said he was glad to see this included in PJM’s plan — the Office of People’s Counsel has been calling for load forecasting reform since 2024. But a lot will depend on how PJM actually implements these reforms, he said.

 

“Generally, you know, these load forecasts are extreme. They’re excessive. We don’t think all that data center load is going to come,” Lapp said. “What we really need is uniform, transparent, minimum standards for financial commitments for when a project is included in the load forecast, and that’s what we’ve been calling for. And, you know, the language [of PJM’s plan] does not require that,

 

PJM will also seek additional input from the Public Service Commissions in each state when it prepares these projections of power demand.

Charkoudian and state Sen. Katie Fry Hester are planning to introduce legislation in the state legislature this winter to help Maryland “make sure we’re getting the count right in the state right.”

 

Several parts of the grid operator’s plan will need approval from either PJM’s stakeholders or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before they’re fully implemented. Among these is a proposal by Moore and the group of mid-Atlantic governors to freeze electric prices in the PJM region through 2030, which PJM will seek stakeholder feedback on.

 

But many of the changes to the grid operator’s internal strategy, such as updates to data center power use estimates, could be implemented right away.

 

“We’re heading in a much more positive direction than we were six months ago. And so we’re happy to see some progress, but there needs to be a lot more progress,” Lapp said. “We really need to work on the details to make sure that customers are protected from these massive hyperscale data centers.”

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Have a news tip? Contact Lily Carey at LCarey@baltsun.com.

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