Delaware public advocate: data center growth already adding billions to PJM capacity costs

Jamieson Tweedy, Delaware’s public advocate, told a joint Senate–House committee that data center growth in the PJM footprint is already imposing large costs on electricity customers and urged Delaware to adopt stronger protections for ratepayers.

"Not only will customers be negatively impacted by data centers, they are already being negatively impacted," Tweedy said, pointing to independent-market-monitor calculations and PJM auction outcomes that attribute billions in additional capacity costs to forecasted data-center load.

Tweedy identified four energy impacts states should weigh: reliability (is enough generation available when and where needed), transmission (who pays for upgrades), distribution (who bears local infrastructure cost), and overall energy cost. He emphasized that whether a large load brings its own generation, agrees to curtailment, or is assigned costs through tariffs dramatically changes the local outcomes.

He cited analyses indicating recent PJM auctions cleared short of desired procurement — including a December auction that was about 6.5 gigawatts under target — and said an independent market monitor attributes roughly $23 billion in costs to data-center load growth, with an additional $13 billion avoided because of a temporary price collar.

Tweedy urged options Delaware should consider: state review and validation of utility load forecasts submitted to PJM; large-load tariff structures that require transmission‑level connections and make developers pay distribution or substation costs; requirements for verified financial commitments before loads are included in forecasts; and enforceable curtailment or on-site generation mandates to protect residential customers.

"These are costs that flow back, through utilities to ratepayers," Tweedy said. "So those are costs that we are all already paying and will continue to pay going forward." He recommended the committee pursue rule or policy options that ensure any allocation of procurement or transmission costs reflect the causal contributions of new large loads.

The committee did not adopt policy at the hearing; members sought additional data on per-household impacts and on the details of proposed large-load tariffs and moratoria.