U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, recently voiced concerns about policies encouraging the development of data centers in Maryland.
“I am writing to express my concerns regarding policies encouraging the development of data centers in Maryland. While I recognize their value to innovation and economic growth, I do not believe current policy balances the benefits of data centers to Marylanders against the substantial negative impacts that the unmitigated development of data centers would have on our already overburdened grid, ratepayers, and environment,” Cardin said in his Sept. 24 letter to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
Cardin noted that in January 2024, the PJM Interconnection published its annual load growth report, which forecasted that its summer and winter peaks will grow by 1.7% and 2.0% respectively through 2034. This represents a nearly three-fold increase from the respective load growth rates of 0.4% and 0.7% forecasted last year.
PJM manages the movement of electricity in a number of mid-Atlantic states including Maryland.
“The report cites data center development in the region as a reason for the increase. The load growth forecasts inform PJM’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plan, which identifies needs for additional transmission capacity in the region,” Cardin said.
In the 2023 plan, “PJM cited an unprecedented data center load growth of about 7,500 MW in Northern Virginia and Western Maryland by 2027-2028 in 2023 as a core reason for additional transmission upgrades,” the letter said.
“Despite the burden they place on the system, data centers do not bear the true cost of transmission expansion,” Cardin asserted.
According to Cardin, the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel “has for many years worked unsuccessfully in opposition to PJM and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s processes that shift the cost burden of data center development in the region onto Maryland ratepayers. It is imperative that, at the least, data centers, not ratepayers, shoulder the additional costs their outsized load demands.”
Cardin said that “a transparent and rigorous review process that allows for public participation should serve as the foundation of the State’s framework for a thoughtful and sustainable data center siting policy. This review process should include rigorous investigation into the true cost of the required transmission upgrades. Second, the process should address the short and long-term cumulative impacts of each additional data center on land use, energy and water consumption, and impact on Maryland’s climate and energy efficiency goals.”
