During his address, Governor Moore outlined three specific actions PJM must take to partner with Maryland and deliver relief to consumers:
- Deliver the Reliability Backstop Procurement on schedule: PJM must hold its auction in September and provide 15-year price certainty to ensure the cost of new energy resources is allocated to those driving the need.
- Ensure data centers pay their own way: PJM must require the companies fueling the surge in electricity demand to bear the costs of grid infrastructure, rather than passing the burden to households and small businesses.
- Clear the interconnection queue: PJM must move faster to approve new, affordable energy resources, particularly storage, rather than relitigating the technology mix inside the queue.
“It’s critical that PJM works with states to optimize reliability, affordability, and their individual goals for energy progress,” said Maryland Energy Administration Director Kelly Speakes-Backman. “Maryland has taken meaningful steps to address affordability and reliability concerns, and now it’s time for PJM to work more closely in partnership with us to do the same.”
The governor’s remarks build on a robust, state-level agenda to drive down utility bills and hold energy companies accountable. Under the Moore-Miller Administration, Maryland successfully enacted the 2025 Next Generation Energy Act, which delivered $200 million in direct rebates to ratepayers and required separate rate schedules for data centers. Tomorrow, the governor will sign the bipartisan Utility RELIEF Act, which bans utilities from passing executive bonuses to ratepayers, allocates $100 million from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund to offset utility fees and lower energy bills, and leverages $100 million from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund to establish an annual bidding process for local clean energy projects.
This year, Governor Moore led a bipartisan coalition of governors to advocate for systemic reforms. In January, Governor Moore joined a coalition of governors at the White House to sign a Statement of Principles calling for urgent reforms to the PJM Interconnection capacity market. The agreement, signed by fellow PJM governors, outlines a coordinated strategy to incentivize new power generation, protect residential customers from price increases, and ensure that data centers pay for the generation investments they drive.
Sustained advocacy from Governor Moore and 12 other governors pushed the PJM Board of Managers to extend its capacity market price cap through the end of the decade. The decision is projected to save 67 million Americans across the region—including millions of Marylanders—an estimated $27 billion on their energy bills.
Maryland joined eight other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states last year to form the Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission. This first-of-its-kind partnership was established to identify specific steps policymakers can take to reduce costs for consumers through better interregional transmission planning.
Governor Moore also sent a letter to the PJM Board of Managers last year urging the operator to adjust capacity market rules and lower the price cap ahead of the 2026/2027 auction. In partnership with the governors of Pennsylvania, Illinois, Delaware, and New Jersey, Governor Moore advocated for temporary modifications to prevent prices from reaching unjust levels.
Governor Moore’s PJM Annual Meeting remarks as delivered:
Thank you, Asim.
And thank you for the invitation.
Welcome to Baltimore, everyone.
Welcome to Maryland.
We are thankful to have you here, but I’m also really grateful for the invitation.
I know there’s been a lot of communication over the process of these past couple of years via letters, press releases, and shows.
But this topic is too important. It’s too necessary. And it’s too urgent for us not to have the opportunity to have this conversation face-to-face.
So, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be here, and I’m grateful for the invitation.
As you all know, Maryland plays a very important role inside of PJM and, frankly, PJM plays a very important role for the State of Maryland.
Marylanders are amongst the 67 million people across 13 different states and D.C. that rely on you.
They rely on PJM.
A fifth of the American population counts on you.
They count on PJM to keep the lights on through every storm.
To keep the power on throughout every season.
Millions of Marylanders are impacted by PJM’s choices every single day and they feel it with every single utility bill.
Earlier this year, PJM’s Board of Managers made the choice to extend the capacity price cap through 2030.
And I want to say thank you because that was the right choice.
And it’s something that for every single state within the PJM framework, we appreciate.
It’s a choice that’s projected to save ratepayers across the region $27 billion.
And it’s a choice that I advocated for along with other governors, both Democratic and Republican, and also with the White House.
And I know the kind of impact that’s going to have on each and every one of us.
But today, I am here to say plainly that PJM can — and must — do more for ratepayers.
PJM could neither have predicted nor planned the data center surge a decade ago — and I do understand that.
Energy policy is complex — and I completely get that.
I had no idea when I first ran for governor just a few years ago, the first political office I ever held in my life, just how much the conversation would be dominated by things like energy policy and its complexities.
Dealing with 14 jurisdictions who have 14 different energy realities, 14 different energy structures, and 14 different energy histories is complex for you all.
I get that. And I respect it.
Yet I do not get the record company profits and the skyrocketing utility bills.
I do not get the choices that are being made that limit generation.
I do not get the choices that stifle supply.
I do not get the surging of costs.
Particularly because I know that I hear it every single day from the people in my state.
For too long, affordability and reliability have been framed as competing goals somehow.
That somehow there’s a choice that has to happen.
That somehow keeping the lights on tomorrow requires working families to pay crushing prices today.
Yet I know, and I know all of you know, that that is a false choice.
And today, I want to be crystal clear: that false choice is costing families thousands.
And it’s fueling an energy and affordability crisis.
Today, I want to be clear on how Maryland is trying to step into the breach.
But Maryland — and no state alone — can deliver meaningful, lasting relief unless we do it in partnership with PJM.
And I want to be clear what Maryland needs from PJM — what partnership looks like, and frankly, what partnership does not look like.
Over the past year, you’ve heard from governors of OPSI, the organization of PJM states, and the legislators’ collaborative.
And over these next three days, you will hear from a collection of different elected officials — people who we have been working very closely with behind the scenes in preparation for this conference and in making moves to try to protect our people.
And I do want to be clear that there is no daylight between us on what needs to change.
We are aligned.
And we’re aligned with a simple understanding that the framework that we have right now is not working for us.
And it’s not working for our folks.
We are eager to have a table that we are included at.
We are eager for us to come together to find tenable solutions for the people that we are all here to serve.
Across three auctions, the capacity prices PJM market produces have increased more than tenfold.
From roughly $29 per megawatt-day to more than $333.
The most recent auction cleared at the price cap and still came up with 6,600 megawatts short of this organization’s own reliability target.
That’s not a market signal. That’s a system that isn’t working.
One explanation that we often hear is that the states caused the crisis.
That if only the states had written different climate laws, plants would not retire and the market would clear at sustainable prices.
That explanation is incomplete at best and an unproductive excuse at worst.
It wasn’t the states that drove those retirements.
New, cheaper, cleaner technologies outcompeted aging coal and gas plants.
That’s why states have been supportive of new and burgeoning industries.
That’s how markets work and that’s how economies grow.
And that is the truth.
This organization relies on state cooperation to function.
PJM is responsible for coordinating state markets — and not blaming them.
State policy did not design the interconnection queue.
It wasn’t Maryland that greenlit billions in transmission investments to serve the needs of other states.
That wasn’t Maryland.
That was PJM.
But the consequences of those decisions are showing up monthly on Marylanders’ bills.
The three largest utilities in Maryland rank amongst the five highest in energy market prices.
And I do want to be clear: the explanations to my people do not make sense.
They think this system is not working for them.
And it isn’t.
Now, in Maryland, we are scaling up relief and we are stepping in to enact reform — to do what we can do to be good partners, but also to be good stewards of the people who we are serving.
Last year in Maryland, we delivered $200 million in direct rebates through the Next Generation Energy Act.
That law required separate rate schedules so data centers are going to cover their own transmission and distribution costs.
And making sure that Maryland families do not have to.
This year, with bipartisan support — both Democrats and Republicans — the Maryland General Assembly passed the Utility Relief Act.
And I mention that because in our increasingly polarized and partisan-charged society, in a society where oftentimes the dialogue has become vitriolic between political parties, energy policy is uniting state lawmakers.
And that makes sense.
Because I hear just as much about utility costs in counties I won by 20 points as I do in counties that I lost by 20 points.
This has become a unifying rallying cry.
And we need to be able to act.
I even heard it from my own mother, who was trying to understand why, in her house in Anne Arundel County, it feels like every single month she’s paying more. And she doesn’t understand it.
Maryland’s new law will save the average family hundreds of dollars a year.
It bans utilities from passing executive bonuses onto ratepayers.
Because it is unconscionable for our people to see utility executives’ compensation rising just as fast as people’s utility bills.
It also directs $100 million to pay down energy efficiency program costs.
And it opens the door to a clean energy auction so we can have more local clean energy at the lowest possible price.
Together with the Maryland General Assembly and leaders like Senator Hester, who I know is here today — there she is, great to see you, Senator Hester, and thank you for your leadership.
Because with her leadership, Maryland stood up a data center registry for more transparency and better forecasting.
We banned an unfair practice where utilities can come back and request to pass surprise costs onto households.
And we got rid of the loophole that allowed utility companies to collect extra incentives just for volunteering to join the regional grid — a grid that, by the way, they are already a part of.
That loophole is now gone.
That is how Maryland is choosing to move.
But I know that there is not a governor who alone can determine what is going to happen to every single person within our state when it comes to energy prices.
No governor can determine what another state will do.
Or what the federal government will do.
Or what PJM will do.
Each state is not the same.
Pennsylvania is going to have its own approach.
Virginia is going to have its own approach.
New Jersey is going to have its own approach.
Some of these states produce more natural gas than they consume.
And some of them are net exporters of electricity.
Maryland is a net importer of about 40% of what we use.
So when Pennsylvania and Maryland both can say that we are “all-of-the-above” states, the truth is, we can use the same words — but that still means a very different reality based on the makeup of our states.
And I do want to be clear about Maryland’s reality.
Maryland’s reality is natural gas is a major and a necessary part of our energy mix today.
We understand that and we embrace it.
But new gas is not feasible for Maryland.
Interconnecting just one new plant was estimated to cost $800 million.
And we sit on some of the most congested natural gas pipelines in the country.
So when I say “all-of-the-above” for new generation, it means just that.
But it means our priority is going to be investing in solar, and wind, and storage, and demand response.
That’s what that looks like in the State of Maryland.
And that can be implemented now — not tomorrow, not next year — to drive affordability for our people and to make sure that they can feel the impacts of action instead of just dealing with the consequences of inaction.
We need it all to be able to increase supply and to decrease costs.
But what I also know is indisputable is this: the projects ready to deliver relief right now — the cheapest, the fastest megawatts on the board — are the same ones that are currently being attacked by Washington, D.C.
So let’s call that what it is: a choice.
And oftentimes an ideological one.
A choice to make families wait longer and to pay more because of an ideology and not because of data.
And I’m not interested in ideological choices. Never got into this business because of them.
I’m interested in making sure we can lower bills.
I’m interested in making sure that the people of our state know that we see them and we hear them.
And we’ve got to build projects that can deliver them now.
And PJM’s job is to coordinate across that state diversity — to build real partnerships with the states — not to stifle it.
The State of Maryland, like many others across the footprint, we are a willing and a wanting partner for you all.
We want to work closely to be able to address these issues.
But what we shouldn’t have to do is the job of PJM for PJM.
There’s no clear plan by PJM to address both affordability and reliability.
If PJM cannot step up, then states like Maryland will continue to do what we can to protect our people.
And the challenge is every other state is going to do the same.
And that coordination that is necessary will not be there.
States cannot solve this problem without PJM’s partnership.
Our partnership is required.
Let me be clear about three things that Maryland needs next from PJM.
Each action is tied to commitments made by the bipartisan coalition of governors that I led to the White House earlier this year.
First, focus on delivering the Reliability Backstop Procurement on schedule and with discipline.
Hold the auction in September and provide the 15-year price certainty that we asked for.
This is a long-term contracting tool and we need for PJM to step up to enact it.
It would ensure the cost of new energy resources are allocated to those driving the need.
It is the most operationally significant commitment in that statement.
And it’s also a test of whether or not PJM can deliver under pressure and can deliver in partnership.
Second, data centers must pay their own way.
The single largest driver of capacity price increases is strain on the system from large loads and data centers.
Even if we didn’t foresee the scale, data centers are not new.
And we knew a while ago that we would see a lot more.
But PJM failed to get ahead of it and did not have the structure in place to accommodate this load and maintain reliability at an acceptable cost in a way that all of these states expected.
Even with a co-located load, it took a complaint and a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order to get moving on tariffs.
And it should not take a complaint that we have from FERC to get us moving, especially to get us moving in the right direction on issues that do matter.
Now, I know that PJM is working on this now with the states.
And we encourage you to keep on partnering with us on these issues.
Because at the end of the day, it is the 67 million customers — our people — Marylanders and others, that will suffer if PJM does not act.
And we know who that’s going to impact.
We know it’s going to impact the people who are right here in the city of Baltimore.
A woman who recently told me about her energy bill.
She told me that during the winter she has to turn her heat off at night.
That she can no longer afford the cost to heat her home.
That she just uses extra blankets instead.
Why is she being asked to pay more because data centers strain on the grid?
It’s not fair to her.
And there has to be a better system.
This is what I mean when I say that if we fail on affordability, then we’ve failed on reliability, too.
And third, PJM needs to move faster to clear that queue.
Not to relitigate the technology mix inside of it.
Storage in particular has to move.
Maryland has a 1,600-megawatt statutory mandate.
And queue delays directly threaten the reliability benefits that it promises.
Now, what we have focused on here in Maryland is trying to make sure that we can pull every lever that we have access to and every single lever that we can uniquely control.
And as the Governor of Maryland, I will work with anybody to achieve real results or reform or relief for my people.
But partnership does require reciprocity. And reciprocity requires PJM to act.
Now, we’ve moved in partnership before.
Maryland is ready to move in partnership with PJM again.
Because partnership produces progress — and nothing else ever will.
But in this moment, it does require a willingness for PJM to partner with Maryland.
And this moment demands progress from PJM.
I think about what it means right now for our folks.
Because energy policy is so much more than megawatts and transmission corridors.
It is about whether or not families are going to be able to afford to live in their homes.
It’s about whether or not that woman in Baltimore can keep her heat on when she goes to bed at night.
Quite frankly, during your time here in Baltimore, you probably won’t see her.
My ask, though, is that you hear her. My ask is that you understand what she’s going through.
It’s about comforting those in need and confronting challenges or dealing with a prolonged crisis.
The cost of inaction is increasing costs for our people.
And they can’t wait — nor should they be asked to.
And so my ask is simple.
We are eager to work with you.
Let’s move with urgency.
Let’s move in partnership.
Let’s move in coordination with these other states.
And let’s move now.
Thank you so much.
And I look forward to working with you in these days and months and years to come.
Thank you very much, everybody.
