Clean energy projects have been on hold for years as Maryland searches for a solution

A coal-fired power plant near Baltimore will remain in operation longer than planned next year because it continues to spew pollution. Meanwhile, cheaper clean energy projects that could replace the plant are lining up to be connected to the region’s grid.

That’s the kind of problem a recent federal executive order aims to solve. It requires regional grid operators to develop long-term plans that take into account states’ needs, including their clean energy goals.

But elected officials and advocates in Maryland and the wider region fear that their grid operator, PJM Interconnection, is in no hurry to comply. PJM in June requested a review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s order, calling it “overly prescriptive in several areas.”

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois are among those resisting, calling on PJM in June to accelerate transmission expansion. On Monday, the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators urged the grid operator to begin planning without delay.

“Maryland’s electric utility customers are now bearing enormous costs as a result of PJM’s failure to plan the transmission system to meet customer needs,” said David Lapp, head of the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, the state agency that represents Maryland utility customers in federal and state rate cases. “The long-term regional transmission planning required under the rule should help address those deficiencies.”

Clean energy projects waiting to be connected to the grid are stuck in a five- to six-year backlog, said Thomas Rutigliano, senior attorney for the Climate & Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. New and expanded transmission lines would ease the bottleneck, he said, and FERC’s Order 1920 is designed to make that happen.

Maryland is among states that have long argued that PJM should consider clean energy and growth goals when planning transmission upgrades. From energy-hungry data centers to future building and transportation electrification, there’s plenty to plan for.

A New Jersey company wants to build a 70-mile transmission line that would run through Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties and potentially serve a planned data center campus, but it’s running into opposition from property owners, farmers and environmentalists. The company, PSEG, won the contract to build the line from PJM, which coordinates the delivery of electricity through all or parts of 13 states, including Maryland.

Utilities have an outsized say in transmission planning and resent the FERC order, Inside Climate News reported this year, because it gives entities other than shareholders a say in decision-making. Supporters of the rule feared it would be slowed by challenges. PJM is one of two grid operators that has requested a review.

“This decision risks further delaying progress in integrating renewable energy sources like wind and solar into our energy mix,” said Ohio State Rep. Casey Weinstein, one of several lawmakers who wrote a letter to PJM urging compliance with the order.

In a statement to Inside Climate News, Weinstein said Ohioans deserve a grid that supports the transition to cleaner energy and promotes economic growth. He urged PJM to address the utility-scale wind and solar projects that have been on hold. “By implementing the transmission updates and consumer protections required by FERC’s order, we can ensure that these projects deliver tangible benefits to Ohioans, enhance our energy security, and create local jobs.”

Jeffrey Shields, a spokesman for PJM, said the organization recently expressed its intention to immediately begin talks with states.

“PJM supports long-term planning and what FERC is trying to accomplish, and in fact has been working with states and stakeholders on what a long-term planning framework might look like, even prior to the issuance of Order 1920,” Shields said in emailed comments. PJM agrees that the rule will help with long-term planning and a more holistic assessment of the system’s needs, he added. The grid operator previously said its request for review was about “seeking flexibility to implement its requirements in a less prescriptive manner” and “to reflect its unique circumstances and regional needs.”

“PJM will continue to facilitate conversations with our states to advance long-term planning and compliance with Order 1920,” Shields said.

But elected officials say they want action, not discussion.

“As legislators from states in PJM’s service territory, we write to urge PJM to work immediately to implement the new FERC Order 1920 regarding transmission scheduling. We view this rule, and PJM’s effective implementation of it, as critical to our responsibility to ensure our constituents have access to reliable, affordable, and clean electricity,” the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, a nonpartisan network of lawmakers working on environmental issues, wrote in a July 15 letter to the grid operator’s board of directors and top management.

PJM’s current transmission planning is inadequate, the NCEL letter said.

“There is no time to lose in planning the transmission system to support our future energy needs,” the group said.

Maryland Rep. Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat from Montgomery County and one of the signatories of NCEL’s letter, said FERC’s order instructs grid operators to plan for different scenarios that could reliably bring clean energy projects online.

“There are hundreds of gigawatts waiting to come online. But they’re all backed up because PJM isn’t doing long-term, coordinated transmission planning that balances all the different needs of the states,” said Charkoudian, who blames some of the delay on fossil fuel interests and utilities that have significant voting power within PJM.

“That is why I am also calling for changes within the PJM governance structure, because right now we are delivering results that benefit fossil fuel producers and transmission system operators, but that are holding us back from achieving our clean energy and economic development goals,” she said.

Lapp, the Maryland people’s attorney, lamented that the FERC’s rule came too late to avert a consequence of PJM’s failed transmission planning. Maryland customers now have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to keep a coal-fired power plant — Brandon Shores, located on the banks of the Patapsco River in northern Anne Arundel County — running longer than planned because a retirement in 2025 could have created grid reliability problems.

“For Brandon Shores’ retirement, BGE is boosting its bottom line by investing nearly $800 million in transmission without competitive bidding, which could have saved customers tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars,” Lapp said. “In the meantime, while transmission is built to address Brandon Shores’ retirement, customers will have to pay to keep the coal plant operating after its retirement date — again at an additional cost of more than $215 million per year.”

Responding to the criticism, PJM’s Shields said the grid operator was not a party to the agreement to close the coal plant, and that renewables alone will not offset the eventual closure. “There has to be a significant investment in transmission to keep the lights on for a significant portion of the state of Maryland,” he said.

Banner employees contributed to this report.

This story was published in collaboration with Within Climate Newsa non-profit, independent news organization covering climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here.