As Maryland lawmakers weigh possible long-term solutions, officials from PJM briefed delegates about a grim energy outlook facing the state.

“The bottom line is the energy outlook in the state of Maryland is dire,” said Jason Stanek, executive director of PJM Interconnection, during a committee briefing Wednesday.

“We need a long-term plan for Maryland to make sure that we’re not reacting to what’s coming next, that we’re in front of it, that we know what’s coming, and we know how to make sure our citizens get power and that it’s affordable,” said Del. C. T. Wilson, who represents District 28 in Charles County.

With power plants set to retire, Stanek said reduced energy production, coupled with a dramatic increase in demand, driven by data centers and electrification, was concerning.

“I am glad legislators are engaged in this topic, energy issues, particularly the development of energy infrastructure in this state has been relatively difficult, but we are working with our states in the power grid to ensure reliability of the system is maintained,” Stanek said following the committee meeting.

As one energy solution, the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, a proposed 70-mile transmission line, that would run through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties, was proposed by both PJM and PSEG. They have argued it is critical to ensure a reliable grid in Maryland.

“The only answer we can seem to come up with is, let’s build more transmission,” said Joanne Frederick, president of Stop MPRP, a community group that opposed the transmission line. Frederick was at the hearing Wednesday.

“I think that is, it’s untenable, and it’s really unconscionable that we’re asking, you know, folks, farmers, landowners, to give up preserve land and conserve land, because the people we rely on to do their jobs are not doing them well,” she added.

Gov. Wes Moore and many lawmakers have also questioned the need for the project and have argued it won’t benefit Marylanders, especially since many data centers are located in Virginia.

“It’s hard to quantify down to the penny what any type of energy infrastructure project will yield to customers of a particular region or a particular utility or particular state,” Stanek said. “With respect to that line, we will see congestion benefits, we will see the benefits of avoiding capacity constraints that we are currently seeing on transmission lines, existing transmission lines that are in and around Baltimore. They’ll see some additional relief if a new line is built.

“Just because the data centers are outside of the jurisdiction doesn’t necessarily mean customers within the jurisdiction aren’t benefiting,” he added. “As I noted, that electrons don’t know the boundaries of particular states. We’re an interconnected grid, with 13 states in the grid, so making any improvements and any new infrastructure to strengthen that grid will allow these electrons to move more freely, both on existing infrastructure and a new path.”

When asked about their long-term solutions, Stanek said, “PJM plans for 20 years in the future, so we are planning the grid not only now, but 20 years into the future, and that takes into account obviously a lot of variables. we did not necessarily expect this dramatic load growth that we’ve seen over the past 12 to 24 months, we’ll continue to make adjustments as we go forward.”

“I think it is clear again that this entire ecosystem is so complex, even the people in charge of making it work well, can’t peel it apart well enough to propose new solutions going forward,” Frederick said.

“We we are planning with blinders on, and that is not serving Maryland, I would contend it’s not really serving the nation, and it is certainly not serving the people across Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick County,” she added.