Maryland Residents Face $2 Billion Grid Upgrade Bill for Out-of-State AI Data Centers

Maryland's consumer protection agency, the OPC (Office of People's Counsel), has filed an objection with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over PJM Interconnection's cost-allocation plan for grid upgrades.

PJM is pursuing a total of $22 billion in grid upgrades to address surging demand from data centers, and plans to bill $2 billion of this to the state of Maryland. As a result, Maryland consumers are expected to bear a total of $1.6 billion in additional costs over the next 10 years.

The projected additional burden by customer type is as follows:

• Residential: approximately $823 million (about $345 per customer)
• Commercial: approximately $146 million (about $673 per customer)
• Industrial: approximately $629 million (about $15,074 per customer)

The OPC argues that Maryland customers did not cause the need for the grid expansion and do not directly benefit from it. It therefore holds the position that these costs should be borne directly by the data center operators consuming large amounts of power, not by Maryland residents.