Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection, to unpack why Maryland electricity bills keep climbing — and how the structure of the grid itself is at the center of the problem.
Maryland is a net importer — the state produces about 60 percent of the electricity it uses and buys the rest from the regional market. Stanek explains what that actually means: who generates power, who moves it, and who delivers it to your door. He walks through how PJM — the organization that coordinates electricity across 13 states and 65 million people — fits into the system, and why Maryland's dependence on regional supply has become so expensive as data center demand drives capacity costs sharply higher.
The conversation covers the double squeeze on Maryland ratepayers: BGE's multi-year infrastructure investment plan pushing distribution costs up at the same time that regional generation costs are rising. Stanek also explains the stalled renewable buildout, the fight over the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project transmission line, and what a new deal between Entergy Louisiana and Meta suggests about how states can push data centers to pay their fair share. Plus: what regular Marylanders can actually do about their bills, including BGE's time-of-use rate program that rewards off-peak energy use.
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Podcast Notes & Links
- PJM Interconnection — Who We Are
- EIA State Energy Profiles — Maryland
- WYPR — What Would Happen If Maryland Left the Nation's Largest Power Grid?
- CNS Maryland — As Data Centers Multiply, Maryland's Power Grid Struggles to Keep Up
- BGE Residential EV Programs & Time-of-Use Rate
- TechCrunch — $1B DOE Loan to Restart Three Mile Island
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Credits
Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Shanya Mapson, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.
