FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | November 7, 2025
Contact: Sarah Fulton (302) 401-1114
DOVER — As part of a regional effort to curb rising energy costs, Sen. Stephanie Hansen, Rep. Frank Burns, Rep. Debra Heffernan and Sen. Russ Huxtable have joined the bipartisan PJM State Legislator Collaborative.
They join lawmakers from 12 other states and the District of Columbia in urging PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, to address the increasing pressure on electricity rates and energy reliability concerns resulting from “large load additions,” meaning large energy users like data centers.
The Natural Resources Defense Council reports that the roughly 67 million PJM customers are absorbing significant energy costs associated with the construction of new data centers across the region, with projections estimating that ratepayers will pay another $163 billion by the year 2033.
To address this, PJM is considering a number of proposals this month regarding data centers’ energy usage, as they become more prevalent across the country. PJM has several ongoing processes that would affect whether large load additions pay their full costs and impact reliable service for existing customers. On November 7, several groups — including the PJM State Legislator Collaborative — will present proposals for PJM voting members to vote on November 19.
“Energy policy does not stop at the state line: because Delaware is part of a regional grid, projects all across the East Coast and even as far as Ohio have direct impacts on our energy supply and demand here in the First State,” said Sen. Hansen, Chair of the Senate Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee. “I have had the privilege of working closely alongside state legislators across our region, including Maryland State Senator Katie Fry Hester, who will be presenting on behalf of the Collaborative. I believe the plan that our bipartisan coalition of legislators is backing represents a responsible and consumer-focused approach to ensure that big projects like data centers do not drive up local energy bills.”
Pepco Holdings, the parent company for Delmarva Power, is a PJM voting member. Voting members are entities that can participate in the competitive wholesale electricity market.
In a letter to the leaders at Delmarva Power, the above Delaware state lawmakers write:
“While data centers play an important role in national security and economic development, their growth must be incorporated in a fair way that ensures their costs are not unfairly socialized to Delaware ratepayers.
…As a public service company with government-granted benefits of an exclusive franchise and government protection from competition, you have a special obligation to advance the interests of your existing Delaware customers at PJM. That obligation includes advancing policies at PJM that ensure that your Delaware customers do not bear the massive costs associated with data center load growth, real or projected, as well as ensuring that safe and reliable service for existing customers is not jeopardized as a result of data center load growth. It means supporting policies that assign data center costs to data centers, reliability risks to the large loads creating those risks, and ensuring speculative and uncertain forecasts of data center load do not become a vehicle to increase existing customer costs and risks of stranded investments.”
“Over the last few years, the burden of high energy costs have grown heavier and heavier on Delawareans,” said Rep. Heffernan, Chair of the House Natural Resources & Energy Committee. “While I understand that data centers are rising in importance to support new changes in our everyday life, academia, and national security needs, they cannot take precedence over basic human rights. I am excited to work collaboratively with my colleagues from neighboring states to ensure that residents are not forced to front the cost of the grid upgrades necessary to support new data centers.”
To learn more about the PJM Large Load Attachment proposals, visit the PJM website here.
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