Maryland officials are advising local counties to prepare demand lists for data center developers to negotiate infrastructure and community benefits.
Maryland counties that have paused new data center development are being warned that these moratoriums are unlikely to halt projects permanently. State and regional grid officials emphasize that this pause presents a critical window for local governments to establish clear conditions. Without proactive negotiation, communities risk facing increased strain on the electrical grid while residents absorb additional costs.
During the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) summer conference in Ocean City, speakers characterized county-level pauses on data centers as leverage for negotiation rather than a permanent solution. According to Maryland Matters, Ian Ullman, deputy director of the Maryland Energy Administration, advised counties to use this interim period to precisely define their expectations from developers.
“Counties willing to negotiate can extract meaningful investment in their community's futures while mitigating impact to their communities and residents,” Ullman said. “New schools, road upgrades, community centers, long-term support packages for local initiatives — it's all on the table.”
Constellation Energy senior vice president of government affairs Mason Emnett echoed this sentiment, urging local leaders to engage directly with developers. “Engage, roll up your sleeves, identify what matters to you, what matters to your community, and in our experience, you'll find partners who come forward and want to be in the solution space and get to yes,” Emnett said.
This guidance comes amid ongoing resistance to proposed data center projects across Maryland. As reported by Maryland Matters, Amazon Web Services recently withdrew from a planned facility at Constellation’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Southern Maryland following public backlash that reshaped the county council.
Officials stress that the debate extends far beyond zoning disputes or neighborhood impacts, with the electric grid emerging as a primary concern. Jason Stanek, executive director of governmental services at PJM Interconnection, noted that Maryland is particularly vulnerable due to its limited high-voltage transmission infrastructure. Maryland Matters reported that the Eastern Shore lacks these lines entirely, the Western Panhandle has only one, and merely a handful run near the Interstate 95 corridor.
Maryland People’s Counsel David Lapp highlighted the scale of the challenge, noting that PJM forecasts electricity demand to surge by 2046 by an amount equivalent to adding “about seven states of Maryland” to the regional load. He attributed this projected increase “almost entirely [to] data centers projected to arrive in record time and in concentrated locations.”
A key objective for regulators is preventing data center operators from offloading infrastructure costs onto residential ratepayers. Lapp clarified that Maryland itself will not drive most of this anticipated growth. In his presentation, he noted that 93 percent of the projected demand increase will originate from Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.
To shield residents from bearing the financial burden of new infrastructure, Lapp’s office is actively participating in regulatory proceedings at PJM, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and within the state government. Meanwhile, PJM is advancing a new reliability rule that would allow data centers to connect to the grid, but mandate that facilities lacking on-site generation be disconnected before traditional consumers, including households, during power emergencies. These facilities would then rely on backup generators to maintain operations.