Immediate action needed to protect customers from data center-driven costs, OPC tells State regulators
BALTIMORE – The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) must take immediate action to ensure Maryland households do not pay generation costs caused by projected data center growth in the region, the Office of People’s Counsel said in comments filed with the PSC yesterday. Without PSC action, regional transmission operator PJM could soon lock in hundreds of millions in data center-driven costs that Maryland households could be forced to pay over the next 15 years, OPC warned.
“It is critical that the PSC take action now to protect Maryland residential customers from taking on more data center-driven costs,” said Maryland People’s Counsel David S. Lapp. “After-the-fact actions cannot protect customers if data centers fail to show up in Maryland as projected and if upcoming utility submissions to PJM are not subject to necessary PSC scrutiny. Residential customers should bear zero costs or risks from utility projections of data center growth.”
OPC’s filing estimates that existing customers, including residential customers of Potomac Edison and Baltimore Gas and Electric, could be stuck paying as much as $562 million in additional costs over the next 15 years under PJM’s so-called “reliability backstop procurement” (RBP). By acting now, the PSC can reduce or eliminate the RBP cost risks, OPC points out.
The recently enacted Utility RELIEF Act authorizes the PSC to issue an order under which projected Maryland data center demand could qualify for one of PJM’s “opt outs” for the RBP, OPC’s comments explain. The opt out—which would prevent associated RBP costs from being allocated to other Maryland customers—is for data centers that participate in “peak shaving adjustment programs” that require data centers to reduce their energy use during periods of high demand.
OPC’s comments ask the PSC to require all Maryland data center demand projected for 2028 that is not subject to binding commitments for associated RBP costs to participate in “peak shaving adjustment programs.” The order should require that the utilities provide to PJM before October 21, 2026, the amount of projected 2028 data center demand that will be subject to mandatory peak shaving programs. Such an order would avoid the RBP allocation to Maryland utilities that would otherwise put ordinary customers at risk of paying these data center-driven costs.
OPC also asks the PSC to issue an interim order addressing residential customer risks associated with the Maryland utilities’ new projections of data center growth that are due to PJM on September 4, 2026. Projections of data center growth, which drive capacity market costs and utility infrastructure spending that lead to higher rates, should only be included in utility submissions to PJM if they meet certain requirements, OPC said, consistent with the Utility RELIEF Act’s intent to protect ordinary households from data center costs if actual data center energy demand is less than projected.
“Maryland utilities’ submissions to PJM of projected data center load growth will drive hundreds of millions in future investments in generation, transmission and other infrastructure that Maryland households could end up paying for if data centers don’t show up,” Lapp said. “The PSC should ensure that upcoming Maryland utility submissions to PJM only include data centers that are both certain to show up and have committed to pay their full share of costs for all infrastructure built to meet their energy demands, even if they don’t show up as projected.”
OPC filed its comments as part of a PSC proceeding regarding the development of rules, required under the 2025 Next Generation Energy Act and enhanced under the 2026 Utility RELIEF Act, to protect existing customers from costs driven by Maryland data centers. The PSC also sought comments on how it should address PJM’s reliability backstop procurement.
OPC is also advocating to protect customers from data center-driven costs at the regional and federal levels, including through a complaint pending regarding PJM’s allocation to Maryland customers of $2 billion in capital costs for large, regional transmission projects driven by projections of data center demand growth. With utility profits over decades, Maryland customers will pay far in excess of the $2 billion—$1.6 billion over just the first ten years. For more than two years, OPC has been advocating at PJM for better forecasting of data center load growth, and in October 2025 OPC submitted a comprehensive explanation of the deficiencies of its forecasting policies.
Visit OPC’s website for more information on OPC’s work to protect residential customers from having to pay for utility costs caused by data centers.
The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel is an independent state agency that represents Maryland’s residential consumers in electric, natural gas, telecommunications, private water and certain transportation matters before the Public Service Commission, federal regulatory agencies, and the courts.
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