As environmental advocates and farmers push back against a plan to build a 70-mile power line through Carroll, Frederick and Baltimore counties, Maryland’s consumer utility watchdog has issued a general warning about how to forecast for future power needs.

David Lapp, the people’s counsel, wrote a letter voicing his worries to the managers of PJM Interconnection LLC, the utility that manages the power grid infrastructure in Maryland and 12 other states.

Lapp, who represents Maryland utility customers, said PJM was not distinguishing between future business demands from “speculative” industries, such as data centers, and the needs of the average customer in the residential area. That lack of distinction is creating a “distorted load forecast” that might create the impression the state needs more transmission lines when it actually may not.

“Load forecasts are a critical step in a process that can trigger massive transmission investments that flow through to utility customer bills,” Lapp wrote. “PJM’s lack of clear guidance on what utilities should include in their forecasts leaves customers vulnerable to utility investments that may never be useful. And those costs could be imposed on customers across the 14 PJM jurisdictions even if just one utility’s over-optimistic forecast turns out to be flawed.”

The letter asks PJM managers to differentiate between actual customers and those projected based on “customer requests or utility projections that do not have such support and are more uncertain.” Among the state offices that joined the Maryland letter: the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, the Delaware Division of the Public Advocate, the Illinois Citizens Utility Board, the Public Staff of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.

Lapp’s letter comes after PSEG, the New Jersey company that PJM selected to build the proposed 70-mile transmission project in Maryland that will cost $424 million, held meetings in Frederick, Carroll, and Baltimore counties. At each meeting, residents voiced worries about a proposed data center complex. PSEG told reporters and residents that the coming data centers are driving some of the demand for more transmission lines.

Stephen Kearney, who is representing Quantum Loophole, a company developing a former industrial site into a data center complex, said his client was already moving forward with existing capacity from First Energy and has no connection to the PSEG project.

Before PJM proposed the PSEG project, Potomac Edison, which is servicing Quantum Loophole, said it had enough power for the project. PJM’s own analysis shows the data center demand to be south of the Potomac River, in Northern Virginia. Quantum Loophole, Kearney said, is “basically another electricity customer in the region that is just learning about this project.”

When asked about data centers, PJM spokesman Dan Lockwood did not mention Quantum Loophole specifically, but said there was a general need for more reliable power due to “electrification of vehicles and buildings, manufacturing increases and data centers.”

Residents, environmental advocates and state politicians learned of plans to build the new transmission lines last week. Property owners immediately began mobilizing in opposition to the project. One Facebook group, Stop MPRP, has 8,400 members. A second, Marylanders Against Piedmont Reliability Project, has more than 3,000. The groups are working together with various state delegates and senators to determine if they can stop the project.

“We stand firmly opposed to the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project,” senators and delegates representing Carroll County wrote in a letter to constituents. “We just recently learned of this project and saw the proposed routes at the same time the public did. This project was not introduced as legislation and never voted on.”

Signatories to the letter include state Sens. Chris West and Justin Ready, as well as Dels. Eric Bouchat, April Rose, Josh Stonko and Chris Tomlinson.

Carroll County Commissioners remain firmly opposed to the project. In a press release, the board said it will “leverage all its influence with our neighboring jurisdictions as well as state and national leaders to halt the project in its current form.”

In Frederick County, Del. Jesse Pippy heard from concerned residents and was arranging a meeting from 6 to 9 p.m. July 31 at Linganore High School’s auditorium. Pippy said he’s hoping to bring together residents and company representatives in hopes of getting more information.

Baltimore County officials have said little about the project, though it would traverse some of the county’s most productive farmland and several routes would affect Prettyboy Reservoir and Gunpowder Falls State Park.

County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s office issued a statement saying its involvement would be “limited to permitting for construction and development to ensure protection of our environmental resources” should the state grant the permit.

Valleys Planning Council, a nonprofit with 60 years of experience working in northern Baltimore County, is keeping residents informed of meetings and advocacy opportunities on its Facebook page. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has an open meeting at 10 a.m. July 25. PJM’s is on the agenda, but it’s unclear if the PSEG project will be.

Maryland’s growing power needs stem from an increasing population and new laws that require cleaner energy. Maryland law requires 50% of all power to come from renewable sources by 2030. As a result, many coal-fired and natural gas power plants are being retired, in Maryland and nationally. Yet, the need for energy remains stronger than ever, especially for data centers.

In its letter, the Carroll County delegation blamed Democrats in the General Assembly for pushing renewable energy and retiring coal-fired power plants that are contributing to the global climate crisis. Renewable sources, they argue, have not been able to ramp up quickly enough.

Brandon Shores, which sits on the banks of the Patapsco River in northern Anne Arundel County, will run longer than planned because a 2025 retirement could have caused grid reliability issues. Lapp lamented customers will have to pay $215 million a year to keep the coal-burning power plant running beyond its retirement date.

At PJM, Lockwood said retiring plants are fueling demand. “In addition to the growth in electricity demand, there has been an acceleration of generating plants that are retiring and closing throughout the PJM footprint. In Maryland specifically, the need for these transmission upgrades is also being driven, in part, by the rapid retirements of generation facilities in the state before new generation projects can replace them.”

Last month, Gov. Wes Moore joined with governors from New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsylvania in a letter to PJM urging better communication to reach renewable energy policy goals without sacrificing reliability.

“We write today to urge you to facilitate a robust process for states to engage with PJM and stakeholders on these planning decisions moving forward,” the letter said.

This story has been updated to clarify that Maryland's people counsel issued a general warning about how to forecast for future power needs, but didn't refer specifically to the PSEG project.