WHAT CAN MARYLAND DO TO REIN IN RISING ELECTRICITY COSTS?
Maryland families are already paying more for almost everything. Rising electricity bills are making it harder to make ends meet.
PJM Interconnection is the company that manages our regional electric grid, ensuring there's enough power to meet demand.. The cost of securing that power shows up on our electric bills – and those costs are rising as electricity demand grows, especially from data centers, while PJM keeps new clean energy resources waiting years to connect to the grid.
Maryland must take action to PROTECT, CONNECT, and REFORM to bring costs down and keep the lights on.
1. PROTECT RATEPAYERS
Massive data center energy demand has been a big factor driving PJM prices through the roof, raising the risks of blackouts in the coming years, and hiking customer bills. PJM could do much more to fully protect residents from bearing these costs or from suffering outages caused by data center demand — but it hasn’t.
Maryland should:
Make sure data centers pay for the electricity and grid upgrades they need.
Protect households and small businesses from paying the costs if a planned data center doesn't get built.
Push PJM to protect customers from higher bills and reliability problems caused by massive new electricity demand.
2. CONNECT CLEAN ENERGY FASTER
PJM is dragging its feet connecting new sources of clean electricity to the grid. That means inexplicably leaving new power on the sidelines while demand keeps growing. We don't need to wait years for new gas plants. We can get cleaner, faster and more affordable sources of electricity working now.
Maryland should:
Get battery storage and clean energy projects connected and producing electricity quickly.
Push PJM to stop making these projects wait years to connect.
Require utilities to make better use of existing power lines and available space on the grid, instead of waiting years for expensive new construction.
Use batteries, energy efficiency and programs that encourage people to use less electricity when demand is highest.
3. REFORM PJM
PJM makes decisions that affect 67 million electricity customers, but the companies that own power plants have far more influence over those decisions than the people who pay the bills.
Maryland should:
Push for a stronger consumer voice in PJM's decision-making.
Demand greater transparency about decisions that affect electricity prices and reliability.
Work with other states and federal regulators to change PJM's governance so it is accountable to the public—not dominated by companies whose profits are affected by its decisions.
Marylanders and other electricity customers deserve a real voice in decisions that can add hundreds of dollars to their bills and affect their futures.